Volume 12, Issue 1


A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE: EXPLORING THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN GOODS AND SERVICES IN THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 1 (2005 – 2006) Fiona Smith, Lecturer, Faculty of Laws, University College, London, United Kingdom. Lorna Woods, Professor, Solicitor, School of Law, University of Essex, United Kingdom. In many legal systems distinctions are made between “goods” and “services” with different regimes applying. The underlying issue is how to determine where the boundary between the two lies. Different imperatives drive this decision at the national and international level. At the national level, policy concerns may not be problematic because the rationale for the decision can be imposed by the “state.” The legitimacy of the state in […]


PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: LESSONS FROM THE PAST AND INSIGHTS TO THE FUTURE

12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 53 (2005 – 2006) Christopher H. Bovis, Professor of Law and Jean Monnet Chair in European and Business Law, Lancashire Law School; Visiting Senior Research Fellow, IALS, University of London. The new public procurement regime represents a considerable intellectual investment on the part of European institutions in order to integrate the public markets of the European Union. With a magnitude approaching one trillion Euros in supplies, works, and services, and representing approximately 15% of the EU’s GDP, public procurement regulation represents a key objective of the EU’s vision in becoming the most competitive economy in […]


THE EU INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR MODUS OPERANDI IN THE WORLD TRADING SYSTEM

12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 125 (2005 – 2006) Rafael Leal-Arcas, M.Phil, London School of Economics; LL.M., Columbia Law School; J.S.M., Stanford Law School; Ph.D. candidate, European University Institute, Florence. Formerly, consultant in the legal affairs division of the WTO Secretariat. Currently, Visiting Professor of EU law at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (India). This Article is an institutional analysis of the European Community’s (EC) decision-making process in trade policy by focusing on three variables, i.e., competence, control, and efficiency versus accountability at the national and supranational levels. The empirical background is the World Trade Organization (WTO), […]


THE CULTURE OF ENLARGEMENT

12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 199 (2005 – 2006) Ian Ward, Professor of Law, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. Enlargement has emerged as a key dynamic in a Europe that retains the hope that it will, as the new century progresses, continue to integrate both more widely and more deeply. Besides obvious questions of financial impact, thus far, successive “waves” of enlargement have progressed in a relatively trouble-free fashion. The next prospective “wave” of enlargement, that which might include Turkey, presents an entirely new range of issues and potential tensions. No longer is it simply a matter of […]


IS EUROPE AN “AGING POWER” WITH GLOBAL VISION? A TALE ON CONSTITUTIONALISM AND RESTORATION

12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 241 (2005 – 2006) Achilles Skordas, Reader in Law, University of Bristol. I thank Maria Panezi, LL.M. Student, International Legal Studies, New York University, for her invaluable assistance. Neil Walker, ed., Sovereignty in Transition, Hart Publishing, Oxford-Portland, Oregon, 2003. Pp.xii, 556. Christian Joerges, Inger-Johanne Sand & Gunther Teubner, eds., Transnational Governance and Constitutionalism, Hart Publishing, Oxford and Portland, Oregon, 2004. Pp. xv, 386. America is therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s History shall reveal itself…. It is a land of desire for […]


CASE C-209/03, THE QUEEN (ON THE APPLICATION OF DANY BIDAR) V. LONDON BOROUGH OF EALING, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EDUCATION AND SKILLS, 2005 E.C.R. I-2119

12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 293 (2005 – 2006) Michiel Brand, Department of European and International Public Law, Tilburg University. The Bidar judgment constitutes a most welcomed development for Europe’s migrant students as far as their rights to financial assistance covering their maintenance costs in the host Member State are concerned. Even though this case presents good news for the Union’s citizens in that it is part of a wider jurisprudential drive towards reducing the gap between the economically active and the inactive, the Court’s reasoning is not entirely convincing. The ECJ’s solution is not the optimal one in terms […]


CASE C-200/02, ZHU AND CHEN V. SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT, 3 C.M.L.R. 48 (2004)

12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 305 (2005 – 2006) Kristien Vanvoorden, researcher at the Institute for European law, K.U. Leuven. As most other judgments regarding Union citizenship, the judgment in Zhu and Chen v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [Zhu and Chen] was rendered by the Court of Justice of the European Communities [ECJ] sitting as a full Court. This fact proves the exceptional importance of these cases. In the case at hand, the ECJ was seized of a preliminary reference petition submitted by the British Immigration Appellate Authority that was confronted with an application by a Chinese […]


DIRECTIVE 2004/113/EC ON SEXUAL EQUALITY IN ACCESS TO GOODS AND SERVICES: PROGRESS OR IMPASSE IN EUROPEAN SEX DISCRIMINATION LAW?

12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 323 (2005 – 2006) Christopher Krois, Visiting Scholar, Columbia Law School. With the objective of further extending the scope of European Union legislation on gender discrimination to areas other than employment and professional life, a new directive entered into force on 13 December 2004: Directive 2004/113/EC implements the principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services. Considering the great economic importance of this area, the adoption of the directive was the subject of a rather heated debate among European scholars: On the one hand, the […]