Liber amoricum in honour of Lord Slynn of Hadley, Vol.I: Judicial review in European Union law

Book abstract:

This volume is published in honour of Lord Slynn of Hadley. Appellate judges from Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, India, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States, have joined with savants from the International Court, the Court of Human Rights, the International Trade Organisation, the Foreign Office and the Universities of Oxford, London and Cambridge, amongst others to fill this and other volumes in his honour.

Gordon Slynn was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1956 where he practised in commercial and common law before being appointed first as Junior Counsel to the Ministry of Labour and then as Junior Counsel to the Treasury. In 1981, on the recommendation of Lord Hailsham and on nomination of the then government he was appointed Advocate General to the European Court of Justice. In 1988, as Advocate General, he was appointed a Judge of the European Court of Justice until in 1992 he returned to the main stream of the English judicial system as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and life peer, taking his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Slynn of Hadley. This appointment was in recognition of his success at Luxembourg and also a demonstration of the determination of the UK to assimilate European Law at the highest judicial level.

Contributors to the volume discuss their personal memories and experiences of Gordon Slynn and each presents an essay on some aspect that is closely allied with Lord Slynn's work. The volume is split into five parts. Part one, 'The European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance', includes a look at the judge-made law of the European Community's Courts, the theory of interpretation and the Court of Justice, and a day in the life of a judge. Part two, 'Forms of judicial review before the European Courts', examines public interest litigation, reform of Article 234 procedure and preliminary rulings on the interpretation of mixed agreements. Part three, 'Forms of judicial protection in the European legal order', discusses the 'EU Human Rights Charter' and the Union legal order, fundamental rights in European Union law after the Treaty of Amsterdam and the sanction of Member States' serious violations of Community law.

Part four, 'European Law before the national courts', examines, among others, the attitudes of English, French and Italian courts towards European law. Finally, part five, 'Judicial review and substantive law', discusses competition appeals, collective dominance, judicial review of Commission decisions on state aids to airlines and the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in Community social and employment law.

This weighty volume, written by experts from all over the world, will be of considerable interest to members of the legal profession and students of European law and International law in particular.