The language of common European constitutional identity is distinguishable from that of common European constitutional traditions in that the former does not focus so centrally on the past, and is independent of the legal doctrinal language of the EU law. When discussing constitutional identity,...

It is perhaps a truism to note that ‘the consumer’ is but a role that is played by human subjects. This insight leaves us, as lawyers, with one vital question: how can or does the legal system meaningfully rationalise its encounters with the consumer? Can it, and if so to what way, shape the...

The historical evolution of free trade has been accompanied by a plethora of debates,concerning both its positive effects and social costs. During the last decade, the subject ofthese disputes has markedly changed. The main objective of the General Agreement onTariffs and Trade (GATT) concluded...

This paper is based on a lecture delivered during the Academy of European Law Summer School 2006. It provides an examination from a legal perspective of three current themes in the external relations of the European Union. First, the legal implications of the pillar structure for external...

The paper addresses the issue of implementation research in the XXIst Century. Research on the implementation of EU law and policies remains mainly centred upon the rather simplistic issue of the transposition of directives and framework decisions, taking as a point of departure the different...

In this paper we advance the argument that, under certain socio-political and cognitive conditions, the manifestation of religion in the opinion-oriented public spheres can have an inherent value for democratic life. However, it is only after processes of selective interpretation and...

This article analyses the so-called ‘rule of exhaustion of local remedies’ whereby a State must be given the opportunity to redress an alleged wrong within the framework of its own domestic legal system before its international responsibility can be called into question at the level of...

This paper traces the origins of the recently adopted general services directives of the European Union, and addresses the question why such an important piece of internal market legislation was adopted so recently, and anyway well after the 1992 deadline for the completion of the internal...

Does the Community legal order constitute a closed ‘self-contained regime’ or will it be an ‘open system’? While founded on the basis of an international treaty, the European Community still has to determine – not unlike national legal orders – the effects of public international law...

This paper attempts to present a comprehensive and coherent picture of the roleperformed by science under the SPS Agreement and SPS case law. It argues that the approach adopted by the Appellate Body is predominantly based on a technical paradigm, supplemented, however, with some considerations...