This volume addresses the future of political control and accountability in a European and comparative perspective. It is based on the contributions to an international conference hosted by the Montesquieu Institute (Centre of European Parliamentary History and Constitutional Development) at Maastricht in March 2008. The conference concluded a larger research project that was devoted to identifying features of domestic constitutional law that could help develop a system of effective accountab...

Direct effect, consistent interpretation and state liability are instruments developed by the CJEU for national courts to remedy conflicts between national and EU law (and may also be used in some jurisdictions to resolve national law and international law). This book will look at the `remedial capacity of these doctrines/tools from the perspective of the national court applying them. In short: what are their strengths, weaknesses, unexplored opportunities at grassroot level, and what can we ...

This book addresses the conflict between climate change, other environmental concerns such as biodiversity, and international trade, focussing on the relationship between climate change mitigation and biodiversity protection in the bioenergy sector, taking into account the specific situation for imports from developing countries. The focal point is the sustainability criteria enacted by Directive 2009/28/EC (the so-called Renewable Energy Directive - RED). The document is divided into 6 parts...

The Law of Succession, which has been traditionally confined to domestic limits, is becoming a frequent topic of discussion in international forums, due to the increasing mobility of people and assets. Freedom of testation is in the centre of all initiatives tending to harmonize or at least approximate legislations in this field, even if, to date, efforts in this direction have focused on international private law. In April 2010, an international conference was held in Barcelona, where the sc...

The effectiveness of European Community law is probably the most distinguishing feature of this unique legal order in contrast with classic international law. By contrast, the effectiveness of European Economic Area law (EEA Law), the way this other even more sui generis legal system provides comparable rights for EFTA-EEA citizens, is a silent revolution brought by the EFTA Court that has not been properly researched and exposed in the field of European law.

This book addresses first the rel...

The background to this collection of papers is formed by the changes in contemporary society. In modern-day western societies it is thought that individualism trumps collectivism. There is change from the paradigm of hierarchy to a paradigm of cooperation. This affects administrative law, which is traditionally top-down, but is slowly accepting and incorporating mechanisms of negotiation and bottom-up involvement of stakeholders and concerned individuals.

The contributors to this volume inves...

Thoko Kaime’s The Convention on the Rights of the Child: A cultural legitimacy critique looks at the protection and promotion of children’s rights through a socio-legal examination of the provisions of the world’s pre-eminent children’s rights treaty, the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The book focuses on this singular question: Does the Convention provide a culturally appropriate framework for the protection and promotion of children’s rights across different cultures? In e...