European Union Law

Citation

Horspool, M., Humphreys, M., & Wells-Greco, M. (2021). European Union Law (11th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The eleventh edition, in Oxford's Core Text series, has seventeen chapters running to about 640 pages, preceded by extensive tables of abbreviations, cases, EU and other legislation, a table of equivalences and a map of the Union. The chapters are numbered straight through without parts, moving from the constitutional base and institutions, through the Union legal system and its doctrines and remedies, to the internal market and a group of policy areas. The publisher describes the book as wide-ranging and clear, written in concise prose, focused on the key debates, and encouraging a contextual approach, with self-test questions and suggestions for further reading.

Chapters 1–3: Introduction; The constitutional base of the Union; The institutions of the Union

About eighty pages of foundations. A short introduction (about eleven pages) is followed by a thirty-page chapter on the constitutional base of the Union, which comes before the chapter on the institutions.

Chapter 4: The European Courts: composition, functions, jurisdiction; preliminary rulings

The Union's courts get a chapter of their own, which also covers the preliminary rulings procedure, so references from national courts are met early.

Chapters 5–7: The Union legal system; General principles of law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights; Doctrines of European Union law: direct effect, supremacy, state liability for breach of Union law and other remedies

The core of the legal order, about 140 pages. Chapter 5 presents the legal system; Chapter 6 general principles and the Charter of Fundamental Rights; Chapter 7, at over sixty pages one of the longest chapters, treats direct effect, supremacy, state liability and other remedies together.

Chapter 8: Public enforcement of Union law (Articles 258–260 TFEU); review of legality and damages (Articles 263, 265, 268, 277 and 340(2) TFEU)

About fifty pages on enforcement actions against member states and on direct actions to review the legality of Union acts and to claim damages from the Union, identified by Treaty article in the title.

Chapters 9–13: Free movement of goods (I) and (II); Free movement of services; Citizenship and free movement of persons; Citizenship and free movement rights: beyond economic links

The internal market, about 180 pages. Two chapters on goods distinguish customs duties and internal taxation (Chapter 9) from quantitative restrictions and measures having equivalent effect (Chapter 10). Chapter 11 covers the freedom to provide and receive services. Chapter 12, on citizenship and the free movement of workers and establishment, is the longest of the internal market chapters (about sixty pages); Chapter 13 extends citizenship rights beyond economic links. The Google Books listing gives a slightly different title for Chapter 12, referring to the free movement of persons and services and freedom of establishment.

Chapters 14–17: Competition law and policy; Environmental law and policy; Discrimination law: from sex discrimination in employment law to a general equality principle; EU relations with Third States and International Organisations

Four policy chapters close the book. Competition law (about sixty pages) and environmental law each receive a full chapter; Chapter 16 traces discrimination law from sex discrimination in employment to a general principle of equality; and Chapter 17 deals with the Union's relations with third states and international organisations.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–8: The constitutional and institutional law

• Constitutional base: the Treaties on which the Union is founded.
• European Courts and preliminary rulings: the Union's judicial system and the reference procedure linking it to national courts.
• General principles and the Charter: unwritten principles of Union law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
• Direct effect and supremacy: the doctrines that let individuals rely on Union law and that give it priority over national law.
• State liability: the duty of a member state to compensate for breach of Union law.
• Public enforcement and review of legality: actions against member states (Articles 258–260 TFEU) and challenges to Union acts (Article 263 TFEU and related provisions).

Chapters 9–17: The substantive law

• Free movement of goods: the prohibition of customs duties, discriminatory taxation, quantitative restrictions and measures having equivalent effect.
• Freedom to provide and receive services: cross-border services, including the right to receive them.
• Citizenship of the Union: free movement rights of workers, the self-employed and citizens beyond economic activity.
• Competition and environmental policy: two Union policy areas each given a full chapter.
• General equality principle: the development of discrimination law beyond sex discrimination in employment.
• External relations: the Union's dealings with third states and international organisations.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Wide coverage at moderate length. About 640 pages of text cover both the constitutional law and a broad range of substantive areas, including services, citizenship, environmental law and external relations, none of which appears in the chapter titles of the shorter EU Law Directions.
• Treaty-anchored chapter titles. Chapters 4, 7 and 8 name the doctrines and Treaty articles they cover (preliminary rulings; direct effect, supremacy and state liability; Articles 258–260, 263, 265, 268, 277 and 340(2) TFEU), which makes the book easy to use for revision and for finding a specific procedure.
• Rich reference apparatus. Over a hundred pages of tables, including tables of cases, legislation and equivalences between Treaty numberings, help readers move between older case law and the current Treaties.
• A contextual approach. The publisher stresses the key debates and a contextual approach, supported by self-test questions and further reading, and the edition points readers to OUP's online Brexit and EU law resources for updates.

Limitations

• Dated edition. The eleventh edition appeared in August 2021. Students must check later case law and developments elsewhere.
• No Brexit chapter. The contents have no chapter on the United Kingdom's withdrawal; the publisher points instead to separate online resources.
• Heavy core chapters. Chapter 7 combines direct effect, supremacy, state liability and other remedies in one long chapter, and Chapter 8 combines enforcement actions with all the direct actions. Readers may need to take these chapters in several sittings.
• Compressed prose. The publisher's "concise prose" and "no-fuss style" mean that some topics are stated briefly; students who want worked explanation may prefer to begin with a more introductory book.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is one of two concise textbooks in the EU law list. Nigel Foster's EU Law Directions is the more introductory of the two, written for students meeting the subject for the first time, with a narrower substantive part; Horspool, Humphreys and Wells-Greco cover more substantive areas, including services, citizenship, environment and external relations. Foster's book suits a gentle start, and this book suits a course with broad substantive coverage or a student who wants one compact book for the whole syllabus.

Schütze's European Union Law and Barnard and Peers's European Union Law are longer and more recent textbooks: the first a single-author account with frequent diagrams, the second an edited volume with specialist contributors. Craig and de Búrca's EU Law: Text, Cases, and Materials supplies the primary materials with commentary, and Lenaerts and Van Nuffel's EU Constitutional Law is a treatise for detailed questions on the constitutional and institutional law covered in Chapters 2–8 here.

How to Use This Book

The book suits undergraduates taking an EU law module, students on conversion courses and others who need a compact legal account of the Union. No prior EU law is required, but a basic understanding of public law and of how courts and legislatures work helps.

A practical plan:

• Begin with Chapters 1–4, which set out the Treaties, institutions and courts, including preliminary rulings.
• Treat Chapters 5–8 as the core of the first term. Chapter 7 on direct effect, supremacy and state liability is central to many problem questions; read it in sections and return to it.
• Read the internal market chapters with the syllabus. Chapters 9–10 on goods and Chapters 11–13 on services and citizenship form the usual substantive core.
• Treat Chapters 14–17 as optional unless the course covers competition, environment, discrimination or external relations.
• Use the tables. When a case uses older Treaty article numbers, the table of equivalences gives the current ones.
• Update. Check developments after mid-2021, including the post-Brexit relationship, in a more recent textbook or the online resources.