Introduction to the Law of the European Union and the European Communities 4th ed

This newest edition of the classic standard Introduction to the Law of the European Communities provides under a new title the most comprehensive and systematic account available of the law of the EC and the EU – including (unusual for surveys of European law) detailed description and commentary on the Economic and Monetary Union.

The new edition covers developments up to the beginning of 2008, and each chapter includes some indication of the major changes which will take place if and when the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force.

The Fourth Edition embraces many new, ongoing and emerging European legal issues. All the topics constantly debated in European legal theory and practice are touched on here in ways that are both fundamental and enlightening, including:

• the European ‘constitution,’ accession, citizenship;
• the principles of equality, loyalty, subsidiarity and proportionality;
• powers of the Council, Commission and European Parliament;
• decision-making, legal instruments, harmonization, finances;
• role of the European Court of Justice, relationship between Community law and national law;
• free movement of persons, goods, services and capital;
• cartels, abuse of dominant position, merger control, State aids;
• EMU, social policy, equal pay and equal treatment;
• environmental policy, consumer protection, public health, cultural policy, education;
• agriculture, transport, energy;
• external relations.

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.