Research handbook on EU institutional law

This book is available electronically via Elgaronline. The Source URL will give you direct access to the title if you have the appropriate subscription.Research Handbook on EU Institutional Law offers a critical look into the European Union: its legal foundations, competences and institutions. It provides an analysis of the EU legal system, its application at the national level and the prevalent role of the Court of Justice.

Throughout the course of the Handbook the expert contributors discuss whether the European Union is well well-equipped for the 21st century and the numerous crises it has to handle. They revisit the call for an EU reform made in the Laeken Conclusions in 2001 to verify if its objectives have been achieved by the Treaty of Lisbon and in daily practice of the EU institutions.

The book also delves into the concept of a Europe of different speeds, which – according to some – is inevitable in the EU comprising 28 Member States. Overall, the assessment of the changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty is positive, even if there are plenty of suggestions for further reforms to re-fit the EU for purpose.

Contents:

Part I: Foundations, Competences and Actors
1. Constitutional foundations and EU institutional framework: six years of working with Lisbon reform - Adam Lazowski and Steven Blockmans
2. Competences: codification and contestation - Monica Claes and Bruno de Witte
3. New dynamics in EMU decision-making in the wake of the European financial and sovereign debt crisis - Kees van Duin and Fabian Amtenbrink
4. National parliaments as guardians of the principle of subsidiarity - Adam Cygan
5. European agencies: what about the institutional balance? - Michelle Everson and Ellen Vos

Part II: Democracy and Fundamental Rights
6. The democratic foundations of the Union: representative democracy, complementarity and the legal challenge of Article 11 TEU - Joana Mendes
7. Transparency in the EU: constitutional overtones, institutional dynamics and the escape hatch of secrecy - Deirdre Curtin and Maarten Hillebrandt
8. Fundamental rights protection in the legal order of the European Union - Martin Kuijer

Part III: Judicial Architecture
9. EU judiciary in need of reform? - Tamara Capeta
10. Judicial review in EU law: a post-Lisbon perspective - Saulius Lukas Kalèda
11. Financial penalties for non-execution of judgments of the Court of Justice - Alicja Sikora
12. The Court of Justice, the national courts, and the spirit of cooperation: between Dichtung and Warheit - Michal Bobek

Part IV: Enforcement of EU Law
13. Five decades since Van Gend en Loos and Costa came to town: primacy, direct and indirect effect revisited - Agata B. Capik
14. National procedural autonomy: concept, practice and theoretical queries - Matej Avbelj
15. Liability for breach of EU law by the Union, Member States and individuals: damages, enforcement and effective judicial protection - Kathleen Gutman