This chapter addresses the question of whether the EU has a constitution. This question has plagued EU law ever since its birth. The chapter explores the formal constitutionalist credentials of the Union legal order and shows that the Union has claimed that the EU Treaties constitute the highest law in Europe. It then examines the constitutional nature of the Union from a ‘democratic’ perspective. Finally, it evaluates the Union legal order through the lens of liberal constitutionalism. This ‘classic’ constitutionalism assesses the legal nature of a document by insisting on a separation of powers and the existence of fundamental rights.
Chapter
4. Constitutionalism and the European Union
Robert Schütze
Chapter
3. The Sources, Forms, and Individual Remedies of EU Law
The Concentrate Questions and Answers series offer the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, bullet-pointed answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary and illustrative diagrams and flowcharts. This chapter includes questions on a wide variety of often overlapping points concerned with the sources of European Union (EU) law. The EU sources of law are the Treaties, Protocols, and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which are regarded as primary sources. There is then the secondary legislation to consider which can be enacted by the institutions of the Union by virtue of the powers given by the Member States and contained in the Treaties. Additional sources of law in the EU legal order are agreements with third countries, fundamental rights, general principles, and the case law of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) establishing, amongst other case law developments, the doctrine of direct effects, supremacy of EU law, and state liability.
Chapter
4. EU Law: Sources, Forms, and Law-Making
This chapter takes an overall view of the EU legal order and examines its legal system, including the elements which are either different from or similar to member states’ legal systems. It begins by taking an overall view of the EU legal order, the different forms of EU law, and the various sources of law contributing to this legal order, in particular now the rich source of human and fundamental rights in the EU legal order. It considers the non-strictly legally binding rules known as ‘soft law’. It also looks at the ways or processes by which the binding laws are made and reviews alternative decision-making and law-making developments.
Book
Edited by Malcolm Evans
International Law is a collection of diverse writings from leading scholars in the field that brings together a broad range of perspectives on all the key issues in international law. Featuring chapters written by those actively involved in teaching and practice, this fifth edition explains the principles of international law, and exposes the debates and challenges that underlie it. The book contains seven parts. Part I provides the history and theory of international law. Part II looks at the structure of the international law obligation. Part III covers the subjects of the international legal order. Part IV looks at the scope of sovereignty. Part V looks at responsibility. Part VI considers how to respond to breaches in international obligations. Finally, Part VII looks at the various applications of international law and explains issues relating to the law of the sea, environmental law, investment law, criminal law, human rights law, migration law, and the law of armed conflict.
Book
Edited by Malcolm Evans
International Law is a collection of diverse writings from leading scholars in the field that brings together a broad range of perspectives on all the key issues in international law. Featuring chapters written by those actively involved in teaching and practice, this sixth edition explains the principles of international law, and exposes the debates and challenges that underlie it. The book contains seven parts. Part I provides the history and theory of international law. Part II looks at the structure of the international law obligation. Part III covers the subjects of the international legal order. Part IV looks at the scope of sovereignty. Part V looks at responsibility. Part VI considers how to respond to breaches in international obligations. Finally, Part VII looks at the various applications of international law and explains issues relating to the law of the sea, space law, environmental law, trade law, investment law, criminal law, human rights law, migration law, and the law of armed conflict.
