Article 234 EC ensures that a divergent application of the EC Treaty or of the statutes and acts of its institutions is not allowed in any Member State. Unsurprisingly, its pivotal importance has given rise to a huge number of ECJ judgments and orders - about 700 by the beginning of 2009. Very often, a practitioner needs to establish whether the preliminary ruling procedure called for by Article 234 EC is required in a particular case being pursued in a national court, and any relevant ECJ ruling or order must be located. Herein lies the great value of this book.

"Dr Barents"' very useful volume sorts paragraphs of the 700 judgments and orders by subject, making it easy to establish the relevance of a particular Community court ruling to a particular national court proceeding. In this book paragraphs of the judgments and orders are presented in the form of extracts sorted by subject. The subject headings are arranged according to a hierarchical system, descending from such overarching concepts as scope and participation to such precise categories as the following: situations outside the scope of community law bodies not considered to be courts or tribunals arbitration third persons rights of participants formulation of preliminary questions presumption of relevance of a preliminary reference violation of the obligation to refer requirement of a pending dispute interim measures modification of preliminary questions questions rejected by the submitting court new elements presented during the preliminary procedure questions lacking precision retroactive effects of judgments

Paragraphs of judgments relating to more than one subject are included under each relevant heading, where necessary accompanied by cross references to other headings. Under each extract or summary, the judgments and orders are referred to by case number in ascending order. The articles of the EC Treaty are cited according to the new method of citation pursuant to the renumbering of the articles of that treaty brought about by the Treaty of Amsterdam.

There is no doubt that the book's technique of presenting case law in the form of separate extracts and summaries arranged by topic and sub-topic improves the accessibility of the material. This very practical, time-saving feature will be greatly appreciated by practitioners throughout Europe. This is a reference every European lawyer will want to have on hand.

In this stimulating context, many of the difficult issues that often arise in discussions of Community law are treated in depth, including the following:
- the relationship between national law and international law in general and the relationship between Community law and national law in particular (primacy, direct effect)
- the process of constitutionalisation of Community law
- the battle between national constitutional courts and the European Court of Justice
- the significance of Community law for the law of the European Union
- the penetration of Community law into the national legal orders
- the role of national courts in the application of Community law
- the ultimate source of the powers of the Community
- the extension of Community law to the fields of penal law and police cooperation
- the significance of the internal market for Community law
- the principle of uniform application and interpretation of Community law
- Community law as a forerunner of global law.
- All relevant UK, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and US literature has been taken into account, as well as the case law of various national constitutional courts. On each issue and topic extensive bibliographies are contained in the footnotes.

A considerable part of EC legislation concerns agricultural law which is not surprising considering the importance attached to agricultural policy by the European Community Members. As a result of its dominant place in EC law agricultural law is currently the most developed form of administrative law in the Community. Besides providing helpful information in the field of agricultural law, this book will be useful to those interested in the development of other fields of Community law which might follow the same path. An issue of continuing interest in the context of agricultural EC regulations is the conflict existing between national and community objectives and between the relevant EC Directives and their practical implementation by the EC Member States.