This book explores the relationship between European Union law, culture, and identity. It illustrates how cultual issues permeate all aspects of Community law; shaping the development of policies in areas as diverse as internal and external trade, education, sport, language use, and the mass media.

This monograph addresses the problems surrounding the interpretation and application of Article 81 of the EC Treaty, and how it affects the regulation and limits of EC competition law.

The pursuit of social solidarity and social justice has typically occurred within the boundaries of nation states. Yet in 2000, EU Member States committed themselves to make a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty and agreed to coordinate their activities within the framework of a novel governance process: the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). This book analyzes the emerging governance of social inclusion in the EU and the use of the OMC as a mechanism of Europeanization of domestic social policy.
Armstrong's exploration of EU interventions to combat poverty and social exclusion...

This book examines how political decisions are made in the European Union and who influences them, touching upon some of the most central aspects of democracy. Contrary to received wisdom, this book argues that much of the responsibility for adopting EU-legislation is exercised by the Brussels-based Commission through a complex committee system (comitology).

The EU's human rights policies are plagued by double standards: it applies radically different approaches in its external and internal operations. In this book, Andrew Williams reveals the nature and scope of this bifurcation and the resultant discrimination, and argues that the ironical condition revealed undermines both the EU's commitment to human rights and its moral credibility.

The EU includes human rights conditionality clauses in its international trade and cooperation agreements, the purpose of which is to entitle either party to take appropriate measures if the other fails to comply with human rights or democratic principles. This book analyses the construction of these clauses, their operation, and questions the extent to which the EU has the legislative power to include such clauses in its agreements.

The EU legal order sits above a diverse mix of 27 national legal systems, with some 23 different languages. Amongst such diversity, how can the unity and coherence of the European legal system be guaranteed? Is there a common understanding between lawyers from different national backgrounds as to the meaning and application of EU law?
In addressing these issues the idea of 'common concepts' has played a crucial role - it is argued that the unity of the system is guaranteed by the consistent application of certain core principles shaping the law. To what extent can these concepts be...

The volume explores the marked differences between the complex and rapidly changing legal organization of EU external relations and the EU's 'internal' constitutional order.
The European Union is unique as a polity organized along federal lines but with fully-fledged States as its component political entities. The tension between the self-conscious Member States and their constitutional relationship within the EU is especially pronounced in the foreign policy field, where they remain determined to assert their status as full subjects of the international order. This book explores how...

Ronan McCrea offers the first comprehensive account of the role of religion within the public order of the European Union. He examines the facilitation and protection of individual and institutional religious freedom in EU law and the means through which the Union facilitates religious input and influence over law. Identifying the limitations on religious influence over law and politics that have been required by the Union, it demonstrates how such limitations have been identified as fundamental elements of the public order and prerequisites EU membership.
The Union seeks to balance its...

Nearly two decades after the EU first enacted data protection rules, key questions about the nature and scope of this EU policy, and the harms it seeks to prevent, remain unanswered. The inclusion of a Right to Data Protection in the EU Charter has increased the salience of these questions, which must be addressed in order to ensure the legitimacy, effectiveness and development of this Charter right and the EU data protection regime more generally.
The Foundations of EU Data Protection Law is a timely and important work which sheds new light on this neglected area of law, challenging the...