This collection of essays examines an institution that continues to be of central importance to students and scholars of European Union law and policy. The essays develop new avenues of analysis and perspectives, including a philosophical, a sociological and a gender-based analysis.

The Law Lords have attributed the supremacy of European Community law in Britain to Parlaiment's 'entirely voluntary' surrender of sovereignty. This book describes, from a Parliamentary perspective, how sovereignty was actually lost. It charts the evolution of MP's constitutional understandings of EC membership and the transformation from a constitution based on politics to one based on law.

This collection of essays addresses a topical subject of current importance, namely the impact of the EU on national welfare state systems. The volume aims to question the perception that matters of social welfare remain for Member States of the EU to decide, and that the EU's influence in this field is minor or incidental.
The various essays trace the different ways in which the EU is having an impact on the laws and practices of the Member States in the area of welfare, looking at issues of social citizenship and the influence of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as at the...

The book is concerned with the legal framework for protecting and promoting social rights in Europe. Its chapters examine procedural and substantive aspects of the Council of Europe's European Social Charter and the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as the EU's so-called "acquis" in the area of social rights. They look at a range of issues, including the strengths and weaknesses of the two systems in terms of promoting and protecting social rights by examining the legal and political enforcement mechanisms as well as at some of the important substantive rights contained...

This collection of essays aims to address the changing constitutional framework of the European Union, and some of the changing patterns of governance within this complex polity. The primary aim of the book is to examine the apparent and gradual shift in the paradigm of European governance from one emphasizing the importance of uniformity and harmonization to one which embraces a substantial degree of flexibility and differentiation. The chapters range from broad, theoretical reflection on the constitutional implications of differentiation and flexibility for the European polity, to more...

New approaches to governance have attracted significant scholarly attention in recent years. Commentators on both sides of the Atlantic have identified, charted, and evaluated the rise and spread of forms of governance-forms which seem to differ from previous regulatory and legal paradigms. In Europe, the emergence of the Open Method of Coordination has provided a focal point for new governance studies. In the US, scholarship on issues such as collaborative problem-solving, democratic experimentalism, and problem-solving courts exemplify the interest in similar developments. This book covers...

The book is concerned with the legal framework for protecting and promoting social rights in Europe. Its chapters examine procedural and substantive aspects of the Council of Europe's European Social Charter and the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as the EU's so-called "acquis" in the area of social rights. They look at a range of issues, including the strengths and weaknesses of the two systems in terms of promoting and protecting social rights by examining the legal and political enforcement mechanisms as well as at some of the important substantive rights contained...

This important new book explores the issues underlying current and longstanding concerns over the 'creeping competences' of the European Union. A fundamental question since the early origins of the European Union in the functionally limited economic, coal and steel and atomic energies communities of the 1950s has been the legitimate scope and limits of its powers of action, and the relationship between these powers and those of its component Member States. This issue, which centers on the legitimacy of different levels and fora of government within a complex and growing economic and political...

This important new book explores the issues underlying current and longstanding concerns over the 'creeping competences' of the European Union. A fundamental question since the early origins of the European Union in the functionally limited economic, coal and steel and atomic energies communities of the 1950s has been the legitimate scope and limits of its powers of action, and the relationship between these powers and those of its component Member States. This issue, which centers on the legitimacy of different levels and fora of government within a complex and growing economic and political...

Investigates the relationship between the EU, national and international legal orders through the lenses of constitutionalism and pluralism.