7 Colum. J. Eur. L. 1 (2001) Christian Joerges. Professor of Law, European University Institute (EUI), Florence (at present Thyssen Visiting Professor of European Economic Law, Columbia University Law School). The main title of this contribution is theoretical and ambitious. The subtitle, however, announces more easily comprehensible narratives. It would indeed be hardly manageable to discuss systematically and comprehensively with all the complex issues which this contribution is going to deal with. On the other hand, any effort to address the “real life” of modern markets will have to take the issues named in the main title seriously. Our market […]

7 Colum. J. Eur. L. 21 (2001) Pavlos Elefiheriadis. Lecturer in Law, London School of Economics and Political Science and Visiting Professor, Columbia Law School in Spring Term 2001. CAN EUROPE HAVE A CONSTITUTION? Can Europe have a Constitution? The question is complex. All the words involved are ambiguous. First, what do we mean by “Europe”? We casually restrict the term to the European Union forgetting that many states that are part of Europe are not and do not wish to become part of the European Union. Even if our focus is explicitly on the European Union, shall we include […]

7 Colum. J. Eur. L. 41 (2001) Donato F. Navarrete. Rosa Maria F. Egea. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Autonomous University of Madrid). European history has taught us two lessons. The first is that the unification of Europe has not been achieved by armed force despite the various attempts to do so over the last two centuries (e.g., Napoleon, Hitler, etc). The second, which also serves to explain the failure of these attempts, is that the countries of Europe have used every means possible to prevent the emergence of a preeminent power among them which could threaten their security. The corollary of […]

7 Colum. J. Eur. L. 63 (2001) Vivian Grosswald Curran. Associate Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh. B.A. University of Pennsylvania; M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., J.D. Columbia University. [L]a grandeur du ginie ne consisterait-elle pas …à savoir dans quel cas il faut l’uniformité et dans quel cas il faut des différences? – Montesquieu. (Charles de Secondat, baron de), De I’Esprit des Lois, livre xxix, chapitre xviii (1990) (“[Dloes not the greatness of genius consist in knowing in which case uniformity is needed, and in which case differences?”) The main thrust of this article is to suggest why the European Union may succeed in […]

7 Colum. J. Eur. L. 127 (2001) Marlies Desomer. Assistant, Institute for European Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Procedure: Application for leave to submit observations in response to the Opinion of the Advocate General; Fundamental rights Facts On December 19, 1997, the President of the Arrondissementsrechtbank in ‘s- Gravenhage (District Court, The Hague) referred twelve questions to the Court for a preliminary ruling under Article 177 (now Article 234) of the Treaty Establishing the European Communities (TEC) on, inter alia, the validity of Council Decision 97/803/EC of November 24, 1997, amending Council Decision 91/482/EEC on the association of the overseas countries […]

7 Colum. J. Eur. L. 134 (2001) Thalia Kruger. Assistant at the Institute for International and Foreign Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.  This judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) considers two questions regarding the interpretation of the Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, 1968 (“Brussels Convention”). It is in the form of an answer to preliminary questions referred by the Court of Appeals of Versailles, France. The first question, pertaining to the general scope of the Convention, is whether the Convention should be applied when the plaintiff is not domiciled […]

7 Colum. J. Eur. L. 141 (2001) E. Dana Neacsu. Reference Librarian, Arthur Diamond Law Library, Columbia University School of Law. On October 2, 2000, the European Union (EU) Convention, specially constituted by the European Council to compose an EU draft Charter of Fundamental Rights (Charter), officially issued its Charter. On October 13, 2000, Roman Herzog, the President of the Convention, forwarded the Charter to the European Council for a preliminary discussion at the Biarritz summit. At the end of the summit, the European Council unanimously endorsed the draft Charter and “no Member State … reopened the debate on its […]

7 Colum. J. Eur. L. 147 (2001) reviewed by Lisa Gambone. The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2000. 260 pages. On October 2, 2000 the Human Rights Act of 1998 (the Act) came into full force in the United Kingdom. The Act constitutes something that the common law tradition of the United Kingdom has lacked for many years – a bill of rights. It is thought that the Act, taking its cues from the European Convention on Human Rights, “will change the fundamental relationship between citizens and the state.” The introduction of a written set of human rights laws poses many […]