European Union law is an autonomous system of rules, principles, and institutions operating within the EU Member States and encompassing social and economic policies focused on cooperation and human development. The EU is not merely an economic union but also aims to ensure social progress and the continuous improvement of the working and living conditions of its citizens. The legal foundations of the EU are represented by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Treaty on European Union, respectively, signed in Rome on 25 March 1957, and in Maastricht on 7 February 1992. In recent decades, EU law has developed significantly. The new provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force on 1 January 2009, introducing relevant changes to the hierarchy of norms and the competence of the European Parliament, as well as a move from unanimity to qualified majority voting in certain policy areas. The Treaty of Lisbon also made the Charter of Fundamental Rights a legally binding instrument for all Member States. Following the Treaty of Lisbon, many areas of EU law have been affected by considerable legislative activity. Furthermore, in recent years, the EU Courts have issued important decisions in various areas of EU law, including citizenship, the free movement of goods, workers, and services, freedom of establishment, and human rights in general. Given these developments, the current legal framework is characterized by the ever-increasing structural complexity of EU law. The interplay between the EU legal order and national legal orders requires cooperation between Member States and EU institutions, as well as an understanding of an extraordinarily complex legal system. The book under review, *Advanced Introduction to European Union Law*, is authored by Jacques Ziller and provides a concise introduction to EU institutional and policy law. Ziller is a Professor of European Union Law at the University of Pavia, Italy, and was formerly a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and the Université de Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne, France. In addition to his academic activities, he has also served as a consultant to the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Committee of the Regions. Building on his extensive work, Ziller provides an insight into EU law using clear and accessible language for readers interested in the diverse aspects of this complex legal field. The book addresses the functioning of EU law and policy and focuses the reader’s attention on “what the EU is supposed to do, and what it may or may not do in legal terms” (page xi of the preface). Accordingly, the book explores the sectoral policies of the EU before describing the functioning of its institutions. Furthermore, treaty provisions are subject to considerable discussion. As Ziller himself notes, “studying EU case law can only be successful if we constantly go back to the bases, that is the texts of the treaties” (page xii of the preface).
Book reviewed: Jacques Ziller. Advanced Introduction to European Union Law. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020. ISBN: 978-1-78811-957-3.
The book contains thirteen chapters that are sectioned around three major
areas of interest. The first section focuses on a set of key aspects that are
fundamental to understanding the basics of EU law. The second section
addresses the state of law and policy in the EU, including the rules of the
Schengen Area, judicial and police cooperation, as well as commercial,
foreign, security policy. The third section is an overview of the general
framework of the EU and the functionality of its laws, and accounts for
less researched factors such as multilingualism, power distribution and
other. Each section will be discussed in turn.
The book begins with a discussion of the foundation of the European
integration process (Chapter 1 – A constitution based upon international
treaties). From the very start, Ziller provides evidence of the autonomy
of EU law, observing that,
…while it is an intergovernmental organisation from a technical point of view, the EU has a series of features which impact upon its law that have little or no equivalent in other
international organizations” (p. 3).
In this context, Ziller offers an insight into the procedure for recess of a
Member State with relevance to Brexit negotiations (pp., 11-13), this
way attracting the reader’s attention to one of the most topical issues of
the last years.
The author then explains the distribution of competences and the legal
bases for EU action (Chapter 2 – Scope of EU law and conferral) by using a set of concise statements able to attract the interest of the reader
and make him understand basic concepts and mechanisms. Based on a
practical perspective, it is clearly stated that “when envisaging an initiative for EU action, the first move of officials of the Commission, Council
and EP is to check whether there is a legal basis for that action in the
treaties” (page 17); this essentially means that “action envisaged must
fall within a field for which competence has been conferred to the
Union” (page 17). Chapter 2 also includes a fresh overview on the principles of conferral, subsidiarity, and proportionality, and on the personal
and territorial scope of EU law.
Then, the analysis moves to the values of the Union and the scope of
the Charter focuses on fundamental rights and EU citizenship (Chapter 3
– Values, fundamental rights and citizenship). As far as EU citizenship is
concerned, the reader is able to conceptualise the legal bases of EU rights
and citizenship, having in mind that “EU citizenship is indissociable
from the citizenship of Member States” (p. 26).
Moving to the second main area of enquiry, Ziller captures the state of
the law of the main sectorial policies of the EU, including the fundamental rules of the Schengen Area and judicial and police cooperation (Chapter 4 – The area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ)). In this context,
the author clarifies that “there are strong links between EU policies in the
area of freedom, security and justice and the internal market” considering
that “although the aims of AFSJ policies are focused on citizens, their
development has been strongly driven by the necessities of maintaining
and further developing the common economic areas” (p. 31).
Customs union, fundamental freedoms, and competition rules are the
next subjects of analysis (Chapter 5 – The internal market). In this chapter, particularly interesting is the section dedicated to the external dimension of the internal market, with insights on the perspective of non-EU
countries especially for what regards the adoption of a common customs
tariff (pages 41-42).
Following this, Chapter 6 deals with the policy objectives of the internal market including environment, consumer protection, food safety, redistributive policies, and social policies (Chapter 6 – Policies related to
the internal market).
In the reviewer’s opinion, one of the most interesting parts of the book
is the chapter focused on the coordination of Member States’ economic
and fiscal policies, including monetary and exchange rate policy (Chapter 7 – Economic and monetary union). Here, Ziller provides evidence of
the strict link between the establishment of the monetary union and the
need of a “fully-fledged internal market (without any limitations of free
movement of goods, services and capital due to currency exchange
costs)” (page 48). This chapter also includes some insightful considerations of the institutional system for monetary and exchange rate policy,
as well as the complex mechanisms in coordinating the fiscal and economic policy at the EU level (pages 50-53).
The second topic area closes by drawing conclusions about commercial policy and foreign and security policy (Chapter 8 – External action).
In the third and last area of study, Ziller provides an accurate overview
of the main features of EU law and the related institutional framework,
including the system of judicial review. There are efforts to explain the
most important features such as autonomy, direct applicability and primacy (Chapter 9 – Specific features of EU law). This chapter also takes
into account multilingualism and variable geometry intended as a method
of differentiated integration (pages 67-72), and covers aspects of EU law
that have received little scholarly attention. In this regard, the author
clarifies some issues related to the language used in the public debate,
suggesting that “in political debates the motto is most often a two-speed
Europe or a multi-speed Europe, whereas in legal terms concepts such as
differentiated integration or enhanced cooperation are being used” (pages
69-70).
The third section (Chapters 10 – 13) continues with the description of
the general framework of the EU with the functioning rules of the Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the Commission and the
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (Chapter 10 – Institutional framework of the EU). In this part, the book also provides relevant
information on the different powers as exercised by the EU institutions
(Chapter 11 – Distribution of powers in the EU) and the system of the
sources of EU law, including primary law, secondary law, and other soft
law instruments (Chapter 12 – Acts of EU law and hierarchy of norms).
In particular, the author dedicates some words to clarify the role of general principles of EU law in the context of the hierarchy of norms, specifying that “general principles of EU law are also used by the CJEU to
interpret provisions of primary law, and therefore they are also binding to
Member States in the same way as primary law” (page 102).
The final chapter (Chapter 13 – Judicial review and case law) focuses
on the judicial remedies against EU institutions and Members States, as
well as the referral for preliminary rulings. This part of the book offers a
comprehensive overview of the judicial system within EU law, with a few sections dedicated to the judicial remedies against EU institutions
and Member States, but also the features of the referral for preliminary
rulings. According to Ziller, these judicial remedies are a “key element
for ensuring the effectiveness of EU law” since they allow “for judicial
review of any kind of EU law act of a binding nature, including on the
initiative of natural or legal persons” (pages 118-119).
Based on the book contents and Ziller’s analysis, the present review
intends to formulate some considerations to identify the main features of
this book.
Starting from the title itself, it is evident that this book has been conceived by Ziller as an “advanced introduction” to EU law. In this regard,
the reader will be impressed by the capacity of the author to combine the
characteristics of an introduction to a specific area of law with important
insights developed across a set of chapters dealing with the most complex aspects of EU law. The outcome of such a combination is a very
agile book of 120 pages that delivers a complete, yet concise account of
EU law, drawing on the author’s extensive knowledge and work Informed by decades of academic and professional experience in the field. Therefore, this book is a real “advanced introduction” able to satisfy both the needs of students and experienced scholars who seek for a concise but comprehensive overview of such a complex area of law.
One more consideration involves the attention given by the author to the bases of EU law, that is the text of the treaties and primary law in general. This approach ensures the possibility of looking to the horizon of EU law, having in mind that the actions of EU institutions always find justification in the provisions of the international agreements concluded at the time of foundation of the EU.
The last consideration from the reviewer’s point of view deals with the presence of a continuous focus on the historical perspective: in this sense, Ziller does not limit the analysis to the current state of the art of EU law, but often provides readers with a set of valuable and concise information on historical developments within different sectorial policies. The underlying rationale is, perhaps, that to study EU law, one must first understand European history of the last decades.
The book is an accessible advanced introduction to EU law. The concise and clear exposition addresses the title in a brilliant manner while ensuring adequate space to insights on doctrine and policy. It helps the reader through the complexity of EU law providing considerations on the historical development of the Union and the current main challenges.
In the reviewer’s view, some more pages could be dedicated to the approximation of laws in the area of direct taxation and the recent process of modernization within the State aid policy of the EU Commission.
Nonetheless, there are no doubts that this book will be warmly welcomed by legal scholars and all those who seek to understand the workings of the EU. In any case, this is an accessible door to an extraordinarily complex field of law allowing practitioners, policymakers, and academics to fully understand not only the legal aspect but also the policy aspects of EU law.
Based on the conciseness and completeness of the content of each chapter, this book is also an ideal candidate for the first approach of the undergraduate students to the understanding of EU law.
The key message arising from these pages is that EU law is always in a continuous development, in an endless tension that reflects the difficulties in finding a broad consensus between all the actors involved.
Professor Ziller’s book is a fundamental compass for orientation in the EU’s acquis communautaire, an unmissable item in the library for all those who seek for a concise and comprehensive overview of EU law.
(2020). BOOK REVIEW: Advanced Introduction to European Union Law. Legal issues Journal, 8 (2), https://www.legalissuesjournal.com/article/08-02-11112020/
