EU Law Directions

Citation

Foster, N. (2023). EU Law Directions (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The eighth edition has fifteen chapters in three parts: institutional law, procedural actions and remedies, and substantive law. Tables of cases and legislation precede the text, which runs to just under 500 pages before the index. The publisher presents the Directions series as the guide for students approaching a subject for the first time, built around scene-setting introductions, highlighted case extracts, an introduction to the key areas of debate, and self-testing features. Online resources include self-test questions with instant feedback, suggested approaches to the end-of-chapter questions, and a timeline of key moments in EU legal history. The author, Nigel Foster, is a former Professor of European Law at the Universities of Buckingham and Wales and at the Europa-Institut of Saarland University.

Part 1, Institutional Law (Chapters 1–5)

About 150 pages on how the Union is built and how its law works.

• Chapter 1: The establishment and development of the European Union. The historical opening, tracing how the Union came into being and grew.
• Chapter 2: The Union institutions. The institutions and their roles.
• Chapter 3: Transfer of powers, competences and law-making. How member states confer powers on the Union, how competences are divided, and how legislation is made.
• Chapter 4: Sources and forms of EU law. The Treaties, legislation and other sources, and the legal forms EU acts take.
• Chapter 5: Supremacy of EU law. The principle that EU law prevails over conflicting national law, placed at the end of the institutional part.

Part 2, Procedural Actions, Enforcement, and Remedies in EU Law (Chapters 6–9)

About 115 pages on how EU law is applied and enforced in court.

• Chapter 6: The preliminary ruling (Article 267 TFEU). The procedure by which national courts refer questions of EU law to the Court of Justice.
• Chapter 7: Treaty enforcement actions against member states. Proceedings brought when a member state fails to meet its obligations.
• Chapter 8: Remedies: direct and indirect effects and state liability. How individuals can rely on EU law before national courts and claim damages from a state in breach.
• Chapter 9: Direct actions before the European Court of Justice. Actions brought directly before the Court, such as challenges to the validity of Union acts.

Part 3, Substantive Law (Chapters 10–15)

The longest part, about 230 pages.

• Chapters 10–11: Free movement of goods I: tariff & tax barriers; Free movement of goods II: non-tariff barriers. Two chapters on goods, the first on customs duties and discriminatory taxation, the second on quantitative restrictions and other non-tariff obstacles.
• Chapter 12: Free movement of persons. The free movement of people within the Union.
• Chapter 13: An introduction to EU competition policy and law. Presented, as the title says, as an introduction.
• Chapter 14: Discrimination law. The Union's law against discrimination.
• Chapter 15: Brexit. A closing chapter on the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the Union.

Key Concepts

Part 1: Institutional Law

• Institutions: the bodies through which the Union acts, and their roles.
• Competences: the powers conferred on the Union by its member states and the limits on them.
• Sources of EU law: the Treaties, legislation and other forms that EU law takes.
• Supremacy: the precedence of EU law over conflicting national law.

Part 2: Procedural Actions, Enforcement, and Remedies

• Preliminary ruling (Article 267 TFEU): the reference procedure linking national courts with the Court of Justice.
• Enforcement actions: proceedings against a member state that fails to fulfil its Treaty obligations.
• Direct and indirect effect: the ways individuals can invoke EU law in national courts, directly or through interpretation of national law.
• State liability: the obligation of a member state to compensate individuals for loss caused by its breach of EU law.

Part 3: Substantive Law

• Tariff and tax barriers: customs duties and discriminatory internal taxation on goods.
• Non-tariff barriers: quantitative restrictions and other measures that obstruct trade in goods.
• Free movement of persons: the right of people to move within the Union.
• Competition law: the Union's rules on anti-competitive conduct.
• Brexit: the legal process and consequences of the UK's departure.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear three-step structure. The parts move from how the system is built, to how it is enforced, to what it regulates, so a reader meets supremacy, the preliminary reference and direct effect before applying them to the free movement rules.
• Procedure and remedies in their own part. Separating the preliminary ruling, enforcement actions, remedies and direct actions into Part 2 gives the topics that make EU law work in national courts a dedicated section.
• A dedicated Brexit chapter. The book closes with a full chapter on the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the Union, a topic that the much longer books by Barnard and Peers and by Schütze also place at the end.
• Online support. The self-test questions with instant feedback, suggested approaches to end-of-chapter questions and the timeline of EU legal history are useful for independent study and revision.

Limitations

• Selective substantive coverage. No chapter title in Part 3 mentions services, establishment, capital, citizenship or external relations. Courses that teach those topics will need another text; Horspool, Humphreys and Wells-Greco's European Union Law in the same list has chapters on services, citizenship and external relations.
• Competition law in outline. The competition chapter is explicitly an introduction, so students taking a full competition module need a specialist treatment.
• Supremacy before the procedures. Supremacy is treated at the end of Part 1 and direct effect in Chapter 8, so readers who want the two doctrines side by side need to read across the parts.
• Edition date. The eighth edition was published in July 2023, so later case law and developments in the post-Brexit relationship must be checked elsewhere.

Where It Fits in the Course

This book is written, in the publisher's words, for students approaching EU law for the first time, and is a natural first read in the course list. Horspool, Humphreys and Wells-Greco's European Union Law is the other concise textbook: it covers more substantive areas, including services, citizenship, environmental law and external relations, and is a good next step or alternative for a course with broad substantive coverage.

Schütze's European Union Law is a single-author textbook that explains the reasoning of the Treaties and the Court of Justice with frequent diagrams, and Barnard and Peers's European Union Law is an edited textbook in which a specialist writes each chapter; either can serve as the main text for students who want more depth. Craig and de Búrca's EU Law: Text, Cases, and Materials combines primary materials with commentary and suits students who want to read the judgments and Treaty provisions themselves. Lenaerts and Van Nuffel's EU Constitutional Law is a systematic treatise on the constitutional and institutional law, for reference on specific points of Parts 1 and 2.

How to Use This Book

The book suits undergraduates meeting EU law for the first time, students on conversion courses, and readers from other disciplines who need a structured introduction. No previous study of EU law is needed; a basic grasp of public law and of how courts and legislation work helps.

A practical plan:

• Read Part 1 in order. Chapters 1–5 give the vocabulary of the system. Chapter 1 can be read quickly, but Chapters 3–5 on competences, sources and supremacy are core.
• Treat Part 2 as the technical core. Chapters 6 and 8 on preliminary rulings and on direct effect and state liability appear in almost every EU law course, and are worth reading alongside Chapter 5 on supremacy.
• Choose from Part 3 to match the syllabus. The goods chapters (10–11) and free movement of persons (12) are the common core of substantive EU law; read Chapters 13–15 as the course requires.
• Fill gaps from another text. For services, establishment, capital or citizenship, use one of the fuller textbooks in the list.
• Use the online resources. Work through the self-test questions after each chapter, compare answers to end-of-chapter questions with the suggested approaches, and use the timeline to keep the history in view.