András Jakab and Dimitry Kochenov (eds.)
The Enforcement of EU Law and Values: Ensuring Member State Compliance
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, xxxviii + 540pp.
The book represents a valuable contribution ... what it offers might be of interest beyond the confines of the legal discipline – the book is potentially well-placed to form the legal backbone of some research in political science and international relations.
This well timed and wide-ranging book is a must read for anyone interested in the question whether and how the European Union might succeed as a community of values committed to the rule of law.
This is a path-breaking contribution whose innovative thought-provoking analysis will capture the readers within the discussion of one of the key issues in Europe today: the protection and enforcement of rule of law and other key values. A must for anyone interested in possible future paths of law and values' enforcement as well as the current state of the law.
Certain books deserve particular attention at moments of despair. The current confusion in the EU is such a moment and this book is the one that deserves the attention. It points to what responsible politicians do not wish to admit: that the EU is devoid of effective remedies to have its rules and values enforced.
There is no doubt that the Jakab-Kochenov volume makes a significant contribution to the on-going discussion. It demonstrates the urgent need to find solutions for the values crises in EU Member States by both exploring existing mechanisms and proposing new ones.
It is clear that the current crisis of the EU is not confined to the Eurozone and the EMU, evidenced in its inability to ensure the compliance of Member States to follow the principles and values underlying the integration project in Europe (including the protection of democracy, the Rule of Law, and human rights). This defiance has affected the Union profoundly, and in a multi-faceted assessment of this phenomenon, The Enforcement of EU Law and Values: Ensuring Member States' Compliance, dissects the essence of this crisis, examining its history and offering coping methods for the years to come.
Defiance is not a new concept and this volume explores the richness of EU-level and national-level examples of historical defiance – the French Empty Chair policy–, the Luxembourg compromise, and the FPÖ crisis in Austria - and draws on the experience of the US legal system and that of the integration projects on other continents. Building on this legal-political context, the book focuses on the assessment of the adequacy of the enforcement mechanisms whilst learning from EU integration history.
Structured in four parts, the volume studies (1) theoretical issues on defiance in the context of multi-layered legal orders, (2) EU mechanisms of acquis and values' enforcement, (3) comparative perspective on law-enforcement in multi-layered legal systems, and (4) case-studies of defiance in the EU.
Defiance is not a new concept and this volume explores the richness of EU-level and national-level examples of historical defiance – the French Empty Chair policy–, the Luxembourg compromise, and the FPÖ crisis in Austria - and draws on the experience of the US legal system and that of the integration projects on other continents. Building on this legal-political context, the book focuses on the assessment of the adequacy of the enforcement mechanisms whilst learning from EU integration history.
Structured in four parts, the volume studies (1) theoretical issues on defiance in the context of multi-layered legal orders, (2) EU mechanisms of acquis and values' enforcement, (3) comparative perspective on law-enforcement in multi-layered legal systems, and (4) case-studies of defiance in the EU.
Book launch at the Central European University, Budapest, with Professors Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton), Wojciech Saduski (Sydney), Laszlo Bruszt (CEU), Gábor Hálmai (EUI Florence), Laurent Pech (Middlesex) and many others.
© Photos by Daniela Lenčéš Chalániová
© Photos by Daniela Lenčéš Chalániová
