European Union Law

Citation

Barnard, C., & Peers, S. (Eds.). (2026). European Union Law (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

This is an edited textbook written by different specialists. Its public contents list twenty-seven chapter-level entries, running to about 875 pages before the index. The publisher says that the book draws together experts from across Europe to introduce the key principles and perspectives of EU law, that each chapter is accessible to students with no prior knowledge of EU law while still dealing with complex issues and debates, and that critical case studies distil the key cases. The public contents list chapter titles with page numbers but no chapter numbers or section headings, so the chapters are described below in the order listed and in groups, from their titles and the publisher's notes.

Foundations: Introduction; Development of the EU; The EU's Political Institutions; Constitutionalism and the European Union (pp. 1–97)

Four chapters open the book: an introduction of about ten pages, the history of the Union's development, its political institutions, and the constitutional questions the Union raises. The institutions chapter and the history chapter are each around thirty pages.

Law-Making and the Legal Order: Legislating in the European Union; The Effects of EU Law in the National Legal Systems; EU Law: Is It International Law?; General Principles of EU Law and EU Administrative Law (pp. 98–237)

These chapters cover how the Union makes law, how EU law operates within national legal systems, how it relates to international law, and the general principles that supplement the Treaties.

Rights and Remedies: Fundamental Rights in the European Union; Judicial Protection and EU Remedies (pp. 238–332)

Two chapters, of about forty and fifty pages, on the protection of fundamental rights and on how individuals and Member States obtain judicial protection and remedies.

The Internal Market (pp. 333–534)

The internal-market group opens with "The Internal Market and the Philosophies of Market Integration" and continues through "Free Movement of Goods", "Free Movement of Natural Persons and Citizenship of the Union", "Free Movement of Legal Persons and the Provision of Services", "Free Movement of Capital" and "Exceptions to the Free Movement Rules". At about 200 pages it is the largest single block.

Competition and Economic Policy: Competition Law; EU Law on State Aid and Public Procurement; Economic and Monetary Union (pp. 535–618)

Three chapters on how the Union regulates competition and public spending and on its economic and monetary arrangements.

Policy Fields: Labour and Equality Law; EU Health Law; Environmental Law; European Consumer Law; EU Criminal Law; Immigration and Asylum (pp. 619–786)

Six chapters on specialised areas which the publisher presents as additions to the institutional law and the four freedoms.

External Relations and Brexit: EU External Action; Brexit: The Legal Dimension (pp. 787–875)

The last two chapters turn to the Union's relations with the outside world and to the legal side of the United Kingdom's departure. External action is the longest single chapter at about fifty-five pages.

New in the Fifth Edition

The publisher lists, without saying where each appears: new citizenship and rule-of-law cases; coverage of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum; expanded coverage of the digital single market; more on the development of the principle of the autonomy of the EU and its values; and updates on Brexit, including the "reset" of EU–UK relations.

Key Concepts

Foundations and Legal Order

• Constitutionalism: the constitutional character of the Union (the fourth chapter listed).
• Effects of EU law in national legal systems: how EU law operates within national legal systems.
• General principles and EU administrative law: the general principles of EU law and the law governing the Union's administration.
• Autonomy of the EU and its values: a principle the publisher says receives more attention in the new edition.

Rights, Remedies and the Internal Market

• Fundamental rights and judicial protection: the protection of rights and the remedies available.
• Four freedoms: goods, natural persons, services and legal persons, and capital, together with the exceptions to the free movement rules.
• Citizenship of the Union: treated with the free movement of natural persons.

Policies and External Relations

• Competition law, State aid and public procurement: the rules on market conduct and public support.
• Economic and Monetary Union: the Union's currency and economic arrangements.
• Specialised policy fields: labour and equality, health, environment, consumer protection, criminal law, immigration and asylum.
• EU external action and Brexit: the Union's international role and the legal consequences of withdrawal.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Specialist authorship. The publisher describes a multi-contributor text of experts, which gives each topic an author who works in that area. The editors are Catherine Barnard (University of Cambridge) and Steve Peers (Royal Holloway, University of London).
• Broad coverage in one volume. The contents run from the institutions and the legal order through the four freedoms to competition, health, criminal and external law, so one book can serve a general undergraduate course or a more specialised one.
• Accessible by design. The publisher says every chapter is written for students with no prior knowledge of EU law, supported by diagrams and critical case studies.
• Up to date. The new-edition notes refer to the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, the digital single market and the post-Brexit "reset" of relations.

Limitations

• Length. At about 875 pages, the book is a large text, and not every chapter will be needed for a given course.
• Several authors. Because the chapters are written by different contributors, depth and style can vary from chapter to chapter, and readers who prefer one continuous argument may find a single-author text easier to follow.
• Detailed contents are not public. Only chapter titles are listed in the sources available for this guide, so readers should check the full contents for section-level detail.
• A UK-oriented final chapter. The Brexit chapter will matter most to courses with a United Kingdom focus.

Where It Fits in the Course

Barnard and Peers is one of two large undergraduate textbooks in this EU law list. Schütze's European Union Law is the single-author alternative, arranged in three parts with a distinctive structure; Barnard and Peers offers the same ground in separate contributions and adds chapters on topics such as health law, consumer law, criminal law and immigration and asylum. Foster's EU Law Directions is an introductory text for students meeting the subject for the first time and a reasonable first read. Horspool, Humphreys and Wells-Greco's European Union Law is a concise Core Text.

Craig and de Búrca's EU Law: Text, Cases and Materials gives extracts from judgments and scholarship and is the book to add when a course relies on primary material, while Lenaerts and Van Nuffel's European Union Constitutional Law is a systematic treatise on the Union's constitutional and institutional law, useful for advanced work.

How to Use This Book

The publisher presents the book for all undergraduate EU law courses and notes that every chapter is accessible to students with no prior knowledge of EU law.

A practical plan:

• Core: the foundations and legal-order chapters (pp. 1–237), then the internal-market block (pp. 333–534), which together make up most of a standard course.
• Rights and competition: the fundamental rights and judicial protection chapters (pp. 238–332) and the competition chapters (pp. 535–591) can follow the core.
• Optional by syllabus: the specialised policy chapters (health, environment, consumer, criminal law, immigration and asylum), Economic and Monetary Union, external action and Brexit can be read when the course covers them.
• Practice: use the critical case studies as a source of key cases to learn, and use the diagrams to follow institutional procedures.