5 Colum. J. Eur. L. 1 (1998) David A.O. Edward. Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. In August 1870, James Bryce, aged 32 and newly appointed Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, set off with his friend Albert Venn Dicey to visit the United States. In 1886 Dicey published The Law of the Constitution, a work that has guided-some would say stultified-British constitutional thought for more than a century. Two years and two visits to America later, Bryce published The American Commonwealth which Woodrow Wilson called “a noble work possessing in high perfection almost every element that […]

5 Colum. J. Eur. L. 15 (1998) Roland Bieber. Dr. iur. Professor of European Law, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Cesla Amarelle. Research Assistant, Centre de Droit Compard et Europien, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler… — Albert Einstein What EU-customs officer, having the task of executing the European Customs Code (consisting of 253 Articles) and its implementing provisions (consisting of 915 Articles) would not dream of “simplification”? What scholar of EU decision making procedures found in Article 189B of the EC Treaty (500 words) would disagree? Simplicity is, however, an ambivalent […]

5 Colum. J. Eur. L. 39 (1998) Damian Chalmers. Professor of Law at The London School of Economics. As a phenomenon, European Community (EC) environmental law appears to be a bundle of paradoxes. While the need for common legislation is far from clear, there is consensus among both policy-makers and the wider public that there should be common norms. There is extensive legislation in the field of EC environmental law but it is poorly applied, and the state of the European environment continues to degrade at a rate which exceeds even the Community’s own expectations. Despite these paradoxes, EC environmental […]

5 Colum. J. Eur. L. 79 (1998) Andre Fiebig. Adjunct Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago; Attorney, Gardner, Carton & Douglas, Chicago. Montesquieu, in describing the effects of international trade, said: “The natural effect of commerce is to lead to peace.” However, he made his assessment in 1748, long before the first merger control law was adopted or before Boeing announced its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas. Despite the fact that this transaction represented the merger of the largest and third largest commercial aircraft manufacturers in the world, the United States Federal Trade Commission concluded that there were […]

5 Colum. J. Eur. L. 101 (1998) Sally J. Kenney. Associate Professor of Public Policy and the Director of the Center on Women and Public Policy at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.  In view of the far-reaching significance which the Court has obviously assumed for governments and private individuals alike in the Member States, one may be justified in asking who are the justices wielding such extensive power and responsibility? How are they appointed and under what conditions can they be removed from office? What are their duties and privileges, and what measure of […]

5 Colum. J. Eur. L. 135 (1998) Marta Pertegás Sender. Center for International and Foreign Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Directive 89/104/EEC – Approximation of laws relating to trademarks – Interpretation of Likelihood of confusion, which includes the likelihood of association. Appreciating whether a sign is to be denied protection because of its similarities to an earlier existing trademark involves a certain degree of subjectivity. The appreciating task becomes considerably more difficult when it must be based on a rather ambiguous Directive provision implemented in different ways by the member States. It is therefore logical that the first case in which […]

5 Colum. J. Eur. L. 153 (1998) Denise A. Julien. On December 5, 1997, the Council adopted Council Directive 97/80/EC on the burden of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex. The Directive will be implemented under the Social Protocol [Agreement on social policy annexed to Protocol 14 on social policy, annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community] which is not binding on the United Kingdom until the Amsterdam Treaty has been implemented. In civil litigation involving sexual discrimination charges, once the plaintiff has established facts from which it may be presumed that there has been discrimination based […]

5 Colum. J. Eur. L. 167 (1998) Alan Cafruny. Patrick Peters. The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1998. 310 pages. Given its economic position in the global economy, the voice of the European Union is not heard loudly enough in the sphere of foreign policy. That is at least what Alan Cafruny and Patrick Peters claim in their book The Union and the World: The Political Economy of a Common European Foreign Policy. Although produced without formal support from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy, the book is a collection of essays mainly by scholars connected to the EUI, […]

5 Colum. J. Eur. L. 141 (1998) Eva Brems. Fellow, Foundation for Scientific Research-Flanders, Institute for Human Rights, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Equal treatment of men and women; Refusal of travel concessions to cohabitees of the same sex Facts and Procedure South-West Trains, a railway company, employs Lisa Grant (Grant). According to the terms of her contract, she has a right to free and reduced rate travel concessions for herself, spouse and dependents. South-West’s Staff Travel Facilities Privilege Ticket Regulations specify that the term “spouse” encompasses the legal spouse of a married employee as well as a “common law opposite […]