The issue of competence division is of fundamental importance as it reflects the 'power bargain' struck between the Member States and their Union, determining the limits of the authority of the EU as well as the limits of the authority of the Member States. It defines the nature of the EU as a polity, as well as the identity of the Member States. After over six years since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, it is high time to take stock of whether the reforms that were adopted to make the Union's system of division of competences between the EU Member States clearer, more coherent, and better at containing European integration, have been successful. This book asks whether 'the competence problem' has finally been solved. Given the fundamental importance of this question, this publication will be of interest to a wide audience, from constitutional and substantive EU law scholars to practitioners in the EU institutions and EU legal practice more generally.

In March 2010, the European Higher Education Area was officially launched, proclaiming the culmination of a ten-year timeframe projected at Bologna in 1999, when the education ministers of 29 European states signed a declaration that would fundamentally influence the future of their higher education systems. Forty-seven countries, including all EU Member States and other countries as far afield as Kazakhstan, now take part in the so-called 'Bologna Process'. Remarkably, this vast enterprise, which has led to rapid and sweeping changes in almost all higher education systems in Europe, has taken place outside the framework of the European Union and the Council of Europe. In fact, as this important legal analysis shows, it appears that with the Bologna Process the Member States have tried to sidestep the EU's growing influence on higher education. Although the Bologna Process has generated an impressive literature addressing what it might mean, where it suddenly came from, and how it has become so powerful, until now the legal implications of the process, and its tense relationship with EU law, have been left almost entirely unexamined. This work fills that gap. Among the often controversial issues raised are the following: * avoidance of the democratically legitimate procedures of the EU's institutional framework for cultural reasons connected with state sovereignty; * the scope of EU legal competence for various kinds of activities in the educational sector; * specific areas of overlap between EU law and the Bologna Process and their implications; * voluntary intergovernmental cooperation as a paradigmatic global shift of internationalization policies in education; * the idea that the university is being redefined, from a social institution to an industry; * the increasingly influential role in the process, by means of funding and coordination, of the European Commission; * financial support programmes and devices to enhance credit and degree recognition; * students as recipients of services; and * teachers and the free movement of workers. The author describes how the scope of the Bologna Process was significantly broadened during a series of meetings during the decade, analyses the relevance of the case law of the European Court of Justice and provides a detailed description of the adoption of the process into the national laws of France, Germany and the United Kingdom. A concluding normative assessment scrutinizes the process on the basis of democracy, transparency and accountability. As the first study of the legitimacy of Bologna from a European law perspective - and by extension of the 'Europeanization' of higher education, including the role of the EU, EU law, and law in general - this is a critically important contribution to a contentious debate that clearly holds great significance for the future of law and society. Educators and education policymakers are sure to read and study it with interest.

Better Regulation in the EU is a perennial and topical question which has important implications for the future direction of EU law. While actions directed at improving the quality and accessibility of EU regulation are not novel, in recent years the Better Regulation Agenda has significantly affected the structural organisation and day-to-day operation of the EU legislative process. Yet, many questions about the future of the Agenda remain, not least in light of Brexit. Exploring the Better Regulation Agenda (and its relation to the overall EU legal and political order) necessitates an integrated, interdisciplinary approach. This edited volume presents insights from economics, political science and legal scholarship. Furthermore, to allow full understanding, it examines institutional practice, where the Agenda is made and shaped on a daily basis. Hence, the book features contributions from the perspective of the work of the main EU institutions: the European Commission, the Parliament, the Council and the Court of Justice. This results in a seminal overview of the subject, of interest to scholars and practitioners alike.

This edited volume brings together leading authors and actors in EU internal market law and policy, revisiting the classic themes in a contemporary context and considering (re-)directions for the future. The EU would not be where and what it is today without its internal market. It is the cradle of the EU's most important legal doctrines and the source of the most significant amount of European integration. And, as Brexit has underlined, it remains the primary political reason for EU membership. Considering the well-established and fundamental nature of internal market law, it is striking to find many crucial doctrinal questions still unanswered today, as explored by this book. Furthermore, these questions now find a new legal, social and political context: one that is acutely aware of the contested nature of the EU and its policies and the need to embed the internal market project in a broader setting of constitutional norms and values. This need is made all the more pressing by the rapidly changing and often disruptive technological context. The various contributions to this book contribute to finding a new direction for continued European integration in changing times, by rethinking, and where necessary reinventing, the role and purpose of this area that remains the EU's beating heart.

This book takes a wide-ranging approach to tackle the complex question of the current state of constitutional democracy in the EU. It brings together a broad set of academics and practitioners with legal and political perspectives to focus on both topical and perennial issues concerning constitutional democracy (including safeguarding the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights) in theory and practice, primarily at EU level but also with due regard to national and global developments. This approach underlines that rather than a single problematique to be analysed and resolved, we are presently facing a kaleidoscopic spectrum of related challenges that influence each other in elusive, multifaceted ways. Critical Reflections on Constitutional Democracy in the European Union offers a rich analysis of the issues as well as concrete policy recommendations, which will appeal to scholars and practitioners, students and interested citizens alike. It provides a meaningful contribution to the array of existing scholarship and debate by proposing original elements of analysis, challenging often-made assumptions, destabilising settled understandings and proposing fundamental reforms. Overall, the collection injects a set of fresh critical perspectives on this fundamental issue that is as contemporary as it is eternal.

This book takes a wide-ranging approach to tackle the complex question of the current state of constitutional democracy in the EU. It brings together a broad set of academics and practitioners with legal and political perspectives to focus on both topical and perennial issues concerning constitutional democracy (including safeguarding the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights) in theory and practice, primarily at EU level but also with due regard to national and global developments. This approach underlines that rather than a single problematique to be analysed and resolved, we are presently facing a kaleidoscopic spectrum of related challenges that influence each other in elusive, multifaceted ways. Critical Reflections on Constitutional Democracy in the European Union offers a rich analysis of the issues as well as concrete policy recommendations, which will appeal to scholars and practitioners, students and interested citizens alike. It provides a meaningful contribution to the array of existing scholarship and debate by proposing original elements of analysis, challenging often-made assumptions, destabilising settled understandings and proposing fundamental reforms. Overall, the collection injects a set of fresh critical perspectives on this fundamental issue that is as contemporary as it is eternal.

Despite their many obvious interconnections, EU and international law are all too often studied and practised in different spheres. While it is natural for each to insist on its own unique characteristics, and in particular for the EU to emphasise its sui generis nature, important insights might be lost because of this exclusionary approach. This book aims to break through some of those barriers and to show how more interaction between the two spheres might be encouraged. In so doing, it offers a constitutional dimension but also a substantive one, identifying policy areas where EU and international law and their respective actors work alongside each other. Offering a 360-degree view on both EU and international institutional and substantive law, this collection presents a refreshing perspective on a longstanding issue.

This edited volume brings together leading authors and actors in EU internal market law and policy, revisiting the classic themes in a contemporary context and considering (re-)directions for the future. The EU would not be where and what it is today without its internal market. It is the cradle of the EU’s most important legal doctrines and the source of the most significant amount of European integration. And, as Brexit has underlined, it remains the primary political reason for EU membership. Considering the well-established and fundamental nature of internal market law, it is striking to find many crucial doctrinal questions still unanswered today, as explored by this book. Furthermore, these questions now find a new legal, social and political context: one that is acutely aware of the contested nature of the EU and its policies and the need to embed the internal market project in a broader setting of constitutional norms and values. This need is made all the more pressing by the rapidly changing and often disruptive technological context. The various contributions to this book contribute to finding a new direction for continued European integration in changing times, by rethinking, and where necessary reinventing, the role and purpose of this area that remains the EU’s beating heart.

Despite their many obvious interconnections, EU and international law are all too often studied and practised in different spheres. While it is natural for each to insist on its own unique characteristics, and in particular for the EU to emphasise its sui generis nature, important insights might be lost because of this exclusionary approach. This book aims to break through some of those barriers and to show how more interaction between the two spheres might be encouraged. In so doing, it offers a constitutional dimension but also a substantive one, identifying policy areas where EU and international law and their respective actors work alongside each other. Offering a 360-degree view on both EU and international institutional and substantive law, this collection presents a refreshing perspective on a longstanding issue.

The issue of competence division is of fundamental importance as it reflects the 'power bargain' struck between the Member States and their Union, determining the limits of the authority of the EU as well as the limits of the authority of the Member States. It defines the nature of the EU as a polity, as well as the identity of the Member States. After over six years since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, it is high time to take stock of whether the reforms that were adopted to make the Union's system of division of competences between the EU Member States clearer, more coherent, and better at containing European integration, have been successful. This book asks whether 'the competence problem' has finally been solved. Given the fundamental importance of this question, this publication will be of interest to a wide audience, from constitutional and substantive EU law scholars to practitioners in the EU institutions and EU legal practice more generally.

Better Regulation in the EU is a perennial and topical question which has important implications for the future direction of EU law. While actions directed at improving the quality and accessibility of EU regulation are not novel, in recent years the Better Regulation Agenda has significantly affected the structural organisation and day-to-day operation of the EU legislative process. Yet, many questions about the future of the Agenda remain, not least in light of Brexit. Exploring the Better Regulation Agenda (and its relation to the overall EU legal and political order) necessitates an integrated, interdisciplinary approach. This edited volume presents insights from economics, political science and legal scholarship. Furthermore, to allow full understanding, it examines institutional practice, where the Agenda is made and shaped on a daily basis. Hence, the book features contributions from the perspective of the work of the main EU institutions: the European Commission, the Parliament, the Council and the Court of Justice. This results in a seminal overview of the subject, of interest to scholars and practitioners alike.