Making Sense of European Union Law

Description

This book reflects on selected issues of European law in dialogue with leading legal scholar Bruno De Witte, whose work has enlightened generations of students, scholars and practitioners of European law. The volume is designed to mark the impressive academic oeuvre of a great legal mind and true academic whose elegant and insightful writings have decisively contributed to the advancement of the study of European law. The contributions attempt to ‘make sense of European Union law’, reflecting Bruno’s mission as a legal scholar and commenting on some of the themes that he has worked on: constitutional Europe, differentiated Europe, social and educational Europe and minorities Europe. It culminates in reflections on the very nature of Bruno’s scholarship and his academic persona. Not only is this book a public recognition and an expression of appreciation for all that Bruno has offered to the European legal community, but also an invitation to challenge the way many scholars think of academic careers and their ways to success. Preface Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors PART I: CONSTITUTIONAL EUROPE 1. Questioning the EU’s ‘Principled Openness’ to International Law: An Examination of the Court’s Reception of the Aarhus Convention and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities I. Introduction II. EU Accession to International Agreements III. The Example of the UN Convention onthe Rights of Persons with Disabilities IV. The Example of the Aarhus Convention V. Ways Forward: How to Ensure Respectfor Environmental and Human Rights Agreements Ratified by the EU in the Face of Obstacles Erectedby the CJEU? VI. Conclusion 2. Mixed Agreements and Constitutional Gaps I. Constitutional Overload and Mixed Agreements II. Mixed Agreements and the Council's Political Choice III. Managing Member State Participation in Mixed Agreements 3. The European Union and National Constitutional Values I. Introduction II. Community Law and National Constitutional Values Anno 1991 III. Constitutional Tensions and Genuine Constitutional Value Conflicts IV. Constitutional Values Conflicts: Is Primacy Absolute? V. Genuine Conflicts: Any Solutions? VI. National Identity Protected in Article 4(2) TEU VII. The Values of the Union as the Identity of the Union VIII. Conclusion PART II: DIFFERENTIATED EUROPE 4. Differentiation and Flexibility in EU Law I. Introduction II. Differentiated Integration from Rome to Lisbon: Accommodating Diversity III. Definition and Modes of Differentiated Integration and Flexibility IV. The Future of Differentiation 5. Recomposing the EU: Flying Together Beyond Turbulence I. Recomposing Bruno II. Decimation of Opt-Outs III. Decline of Multi-Speed Europe IV. Disuse of International Agreements Inter Se V. New Recompositions: Observing Shifting Outer and Inner Cores PART III: SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL EUROPE 6. On the 'Slow Constitutionalisation' of Social Europe I. Introduction II. EU Social Policy as an Autonomous Field? III. 'New Governance', Economic Coordination and the Constitutionalisation of the European Semester IV. Conclusions: The Slow Constitutionalisation of the Social 7. The Emergence of a European Union Law of Education I. Introduction II. The Evolution of a European Union Law on Education III. The Evolution of EU Law on Recognition of Diplomas IV. The Bologna Process and Current Developments V. Concluding Remarks PART IV: MINORITIES EUROPE 8. Protection of Minorities in EU Law I. Introduction II. Equality, Minority Rights and Racial Rights III. Treaty Competence for Minority Rights and Racial Rights IV. The Role of Law, Human Rights and the European Courts V. Conclusion 9. Minorities in the European Court of Human Rights (Or How the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Was Awakened to their Cultural and Political Assertiveness) I. Introduction II. Minority Claims in the Early Yearsof the Strasbourg Court III. The Turning Point of the 1980s and Early 1990s IV. Concluding Remarks 10. On Democracy, Courts and Minority Rights: Mobilising Supranational Courts against Authoritarian Regimes I. Introduction II. Mobilising Supranational Courts against Authoritarian Regimes III. When Supranational Courts Hinder Legal Mobilisation IV. The Authoritarian Playbook: Transition Paradigm, Counter-opportunities and Subsidiarity V. Mobilising Supranational Courts against Authoritarianism and Violence PART V: SCHOLARLY EUROPE 11. How to Introduce the EU Legal Order? Some Thoughts on Framework and Method 1. Introduction II. What is the European Union? III. What Does a Legal Introduction to the EU Legal Order Entail? IV. Concluding Remarks: The Personal Dimension of EU Law Scholarship 12. Pragmatism and EU Law I. Introduction II. Protecting Space for National Diversity: Functional Pragmatism III. Conceiving a System of Differentiated Integration: Structured Pragmatism IV. Managing Crisis and Emergency: At the Limits of Pragmatism? PART VI: RETHINKING ACADEMIA: BRUNO DE WITTE 13. Rethinking Academia: Bruno De Witte Index