The autonomy of Community law

Abstract:

This book looks at the ‘special nature’ of European Community law and seeks to determine to what extent Community law has an autonomous identity. The work is organised over eleven chapters.

The first part - chapters one to five - examines the hypothesis of that autonomy from the perspective of national constitutional law. Following an introduction chapter two analyses the notion of supranational law and the concept of law ‘above’ the state. Chapters three and four seek to explain the autonomy of Community law from the viewpoint of national sovereignty and various constitutional doctrines based on this concept. Chapter five considers the concept of a legal order, which Community law has derived from national law, and whether or not it may provide a theoretical explanation of the autonomy of Community law.

The second part, in which the hypothesis of the autonomy of Community law is examined on the basis of analysis of its contents, opens with chapter six looking at substantive law, followed by institutional law in chapter seven. The concept of the autonomy of Community law is analysed in chapter eight. The relationship of that autonomous nature and the judicial system of the EC is examined in chapter nine, with specific reference to the question of institutional guarantees. The extent to which Community law bears down upon, and poses the threat of denationalisation of, the law of Member States in the integration process is examined in chapter ten. The possible consequences of the autonomy of Community law for the other areas of the law of European Union are examined in chapter eleven.

The book will interest scholars and students, researchers and practitioners engaged in Community law, the law of international organisations, international relations, and national constitutional law.

René Barents is Professor of Law at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands.