The financial crash and lengthy economic recession have tested the institutions of the European Union as never before. Debate about the future of Europe has polarized: Some want no more integration; others campaign for disintegration. Those who believe in deeper unity and a stronger federal Europe have yet to make their case. "A Fundamental Law" does that by offering a prospectus for radical reform. It amends the Lisbon Treaty to make the government of the EU more powerful and democratic. It embraces banking and fiscal union while showing the way forward to a legitimate settlement of Europe's constitutional dilemma. Ten years after the Convention on the Future of Europe proposed its constitutional treaty, the Spinelli Group of federalist MEPs has drafted comprehensive proposals for an ambitious new treaty. Anyone who wonders how a more united Europe should best be governed should read this. The members of the next Convention will.

The Law of the European Union is a complete reference work on all aspects of the law of the European Union, including the institutional framework, the Internal Market, Economic and Monetary Union and external policy and action. Completely revised and updated, with many newly written chapters, this fifth edition of the most thorough resource in its field provides the most comprehensive and systematic account available of the law of the European Union (EU). Written by a new team of experts in their respective areas of European law, its coverage incorporates and embraces many current, controversial, and emerging issues and provides detailed attention to historical development and legislative history of EU law. Topics that are constantly debated in European legal analysis and practice are touched on in ways that are both fundamental and enlightening, including the following: .powers and functions of the EU law institutions and relationship among them; .the principles of equality, loyalty, subsidiarity, and proportionality; .free movement of persons, goods, services, and capital; .mechanisms of constitutional change – treaty revisions, accession treaties, withdrawal agreements; .budgetary principles and procedures; .State aid rules; .effect of Union law in national legal systems; .coexistence of EU, European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), and national fundamental rights law; .migration and asylum law; .liability of Member States for damage suffered by individuals; .competition law – cartels, abuse of dominant position, merger control; .social policy, equal pay, and equal treatment; .environmental policy, consumer protection, public health, cultural policy, education, and tourism; .nature of EU citizenship, its acquisition, and loss; and .law and policy of the EU’s external relations. The fifth edition embraces many new, ongoing, and emerging European legal issues. As in the previous editions, the presentation is notable for its attention to how the law relates to economic and political realities and how the various policy areas interact with each other and with the institutional framework. The many practitioners and scholars who have relied on the predecessors of this definitive work for years will welcome this extensively revised and updated edition. Those coming to the field for the first time will instantly recognize that they are in the presence of a masterwork that can always be turned to with profit and that helps in understanding the rationale underlying any EU law provision or principle.

Parties to cross-border disputes arising anywhere in the vast Portuguese-speaking world – a community of more than 230 million in a space that offers a wide array of investment opportunities across four continents – increasingly seek Portugal as their preferred seat of arbitration. A signatory to all relevant international conventions, Portugal has proven to be an ‘arbitration-friendly’ jurisdiction. This volume is the first and so far only book in English that provides a thorough, in-depth analysis of international arbitration law and practice in Portugal. Its contributing authors are among the most highly regarded legal names in the country, including scholars, arbitrators, and practitioners. The authors describe how international arbitration proceedings are conducted in Portugal, what cautions should be taken, and what procedural strategies may be suitable in particular cases. They provide insightful answers to questions such as the following: What matters can be submitted to arbitration under Portuguese law? What are the validity requirements for an arbitration agreement? How do the State courts interact with arbitration proceedings and what is the attitude of such courts toward international arbitration? What are the rules governing evidentiary matters in arbitration? How is an arbitration tribunal constituted? How are arbitrators appointed? How may they be challenged? How can an international arbitral award be recognized and enforced? How does the Portuguese legal system address the issue of damages and what specific damages are admitted? How are the costs of arbitration proceedings estimated and allocated? The book includes analyses of arbitration related to specific fields of the law, notably sports, administrative, tax, intellectual property rights (especially regarding reference and generic medicines), and corporate disputes. Each chapter provides, for the topics it addresses, an examination of the applicable laws, rules, arbitration practice, and views taken by arbitral tribunals and state courts as well as those of the most highly considered scholars. As a detailed examination of the legal framework and of all procedural steps of an arbitration in Portugal, from the drafting of an arbitration agreement to the enforcement of an award, this book constitutes an invaluable resource for parties involved in or considering an international arbitration in this country. The guidance that it seeks to provide in respect of any problem likely to arise in this context can be useful to arbitrators, judges, academics, and interested lawyers.

This book provides an analysis of key approaches to rule of law oversight in the EU and identifies deeper theoretical problems.

The ever increasing relevance of European law which involves replacement or supplementation of and interaction with national law not only affects the states in Europe but also, and foremost, the citizens. The rights of the citizens in Europe are protected by the European Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. The aim of this textbook is to grasp and illustrate the meaning of these rights and to integrate it into a coherent system. For this purpose the book not only deals with the pertinent law of the European Union and the European Community, but also with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms which, too, is becoming more and more important. In addition, regard is had to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union which forms part of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. Although the Charter is not yet legally binding since the Constitution has not been ratified by all EU Member States, the Community Courts already make reference to it as a concentrate of the constitutional traditions common to the Member States. It therefore does not seem entirely unlikely that the Charter might be included into the existing Treaties irrespective of the future constitutional developments on the EU level. On a similar anticipatory basis the book also takes into account those Protocols to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms that have not yet entered into force.

This insightful book analyses the role that EU general principles have taken in the protection of fundamental rights within the EU since the Lisbon Treaty. In particular, the author focuses on the relationship between written law (the Charter of Fundamental Rights) and unwritten law (the general principles) within the institutional framework of the EU. The book demonstrates that due to their complementary and autonomous function toward the protection of fundamental rights, the general principles still play a key role within the Union despite the binding force of the Charter.

The rapid development of information technology has exacerbated the need for robust personal data protection, the right to which is safeguarded by both European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) instruments. Safeguarding this important right entails new and significant challenges as technological advances expand the frontiers of areas such as surveillance, communication interception and data storage. This handbook is designed to familiarise legal practitioners not specialised in data protection with this emerging area of the law. It provides an overview of the EU’s and the CoE’s applicable legal frameworks. It also explains key case law, summarising major rulings of both the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, it presents hypothetical scenarios that serve as practical illustrations of the diverse issues encountered in this ever-evolving field.

This book represents the first attempt to examine how EU fundamental rights are protected and enforced by EU governing bodies.

This book explores the coming into being in European Union (EU) law of the fundamental right to personal data protection. Approaching legal evolution through the lens of law as text, it unearths the steps that led to the emergence of this new right. It throws light on the right’s significance, and reveals the intricacies of its relationship with privacy. The right to personal data protection is now officially recognised as an EU fundamental right. As such, it is expected to play a critical role in the future European personal data protection legal landscape, seemingly displacing the right to privacy. This volume is based on the premise that an accurate understanding of the right’s emergence is crucial to ensure its correct interpretation and development. Key questions addressed include: How did the new right surface in EU law? How could the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights claim to render ‘more visible’ an invisible right? And how did EU law allow for the creation of a new right while ensuring consistency with existing legal instruments and case law? The book first investigates the roots of personal data protection, studying the redefinition of privacy in the United States in the 1960s, as well as pioneering developments in European countries and in international organisations. It then analyses the EU’s involvement since the 1970s up to the introduction of legislative proposals in 2012. It grants particular attention to changes triggered in law by language and, specifically, by the coexistence of languages and legal systems that determine meaning in EU law. Embracing simultaneously EU law’s multilingualism and the challenging notion of the untranslatability of words, this work opens up an inspiring way of understanding legal change. This book will appeal to legal scholars, policy makers, legal practitioners, privacy and personal data protection activists, and philosophers of law, as well as, more generally, anyone interested in how law works.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union enshrines the key political, social and economic rights of EU citizens and residents in EU law. In its present form it was approved in 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission. However its legal status remained uncertain until the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2009. The Charter obliges the EU to act and legislate consistently with the Charter, and enables the EU's courts to strike down EU legislation which contravenes it. The Charter applies to EU Member States when they are implementing EU law but does not extend the competences of the EU beyond the competences given to it in the treaties. This Commentary on the Charter, the first in English, written by experts from several EU Member States, provides an authoritative but succinct statement of how the Charter impacts upon EU, domestic and international law. Following the conventional article-by-article approach, each commentator offers an expert view of how each article is either already being interpreted in the courts, or is likely to be interpreted. Each commentary is referenced to the case law and is augmented with extensive references to further reading. Six cross-cutting introductory chapters explain the Charter's institutional anchorage, its relationship to the Fundamental Rights Agency, its interaction with other parts of international human rights law, the enforcement mechanisms, extraterritorial scope, and the all-important 'Explanations'.