2 Colum. J. Eur. L. 193 (1995)

reviewed by Kimberley A. Danzi, Christopher Wyeth Kirkham, Florence Melchior, Warsha Prabhu, and Rajesh Swaminathan.

The 1996 intergovernmental conference is upon us. The Member States of the European Union have entered once more into the breach, ushering in what could be still a further dramatic change in the nature and content of their Union. Columbia University’s European Law Fellows’ thought this an opportune moment, and The Columbia Journal of European Law an opportune vehicle, for taking stock of the scholarly writing occasioned by the 1991 intergovernmental conferences and their progeny, the Maastricht Treaty on European Union. In an effort to guide readers to the academic resources best suited to their needs, we review here a subset of the recently published books concerning the Maastricht Treaty. We have chosen nine from among the many useful and valuable books that exist. Our intent was to choose books that explored a wide spectrum of legal issues rather than books presenting a particular substantive focus. Several of the works covered have a more distinctly political character than is customary among works reviewed in U.S. law journals. These were selected because they seemed ideally suited to aid the legal scholar in fully understanding the Maastricht Treaty in that they illuminate the historical and political context that shaped the negotiations and ultimately the Treaty.