Judge-made law has played a crucial role in the process of European integration. In the vertical dimension, it has greatly reduced the range of autonomous policy choices in the member states, and it has helped to expand the reach of European competences. At the same time, however, ‘integration through law’ does have a liberalizing and deregulatory impact on the socio-economic regimes of European Union member states. This effect is generally compatible with the status quo in liberal market economies, but it tends to undermine the institutions and policy legacies of Continental and Scandinavian social market economies. Given the high consensus requirements of European legislation, this structural asymmetry cannot be corrected through political action at the European level.

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The asymmetry of European integration: or why the EU cannot be a "Social Market Economy"

INTRODUCTION This book reviews selected topics in the law of succession from a comparative and, in some instances, a historical perspective. It seems well to begin, however, with an overview of some of the comparative work that has already been carried out. Not only will this provide an idea of the present state of comparative work in the law of succession, but it will also serve as a context within which the other chapters in the book can be situated. However, one cannot embark upon such an exercise without first asking a more fundamental question: what is the true nature of the law of succession? The primary function of the law of succession is to identify both the persons entitled to succeed to the deceased and also the property they are to receive. From the perspective of the testator (if there is a valid will) it guarantees, as far as the law allows, that the property reaches the destination determined by him. From the perspective of the heirs it guarantees that the property is transferred to them in a lawful and orderly fashion. Consequently, the law of succession facilitates continuity, it prevents self-help and it ensures a smooth transfer of wealth upon death. In the course of this chapter it will become clear that the law of succession needs to be analysed within a broader economic and social context. This is because it fulfils both an economic and a social function.

A Comparative Overview

Seit Mitte der 1980er Jahre beobachtet Fritz W. Scharpf die Entwicklung der Effektivitat und Legitimitat europaischer Mehrebenenpolitik. Zu Beginn der hier versammelten Aufsatze steht die Vermutung, die "Politikverflechtungsfalle" beschranke generell die Problemlosungsfahigkeit europaischer Politik. Spater betont Scharpf die Asymmetrie zwischen wirksamer "negativer" und schwacher "positiver Integration". Er benennt aber auch die Bereiche, in denen effektive europaische Politik erwartet werden kann oder ausgeschlossen scheint. Scharpfs Blick richtet sich auf die institutionellen Bedingungen, welche die Rechtsetzung und Politikgestaltung begunstigen und zugleich politisches Handeln auf der europaischen Ebene behindern. Nicht zuletzt betrachtet er die Ruckwirkungen des EU-Rechts auf die Institutionen und Politiktraditionen der Mitgliedsstaaten.

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/140622/1/858922746.pdf

Community and Autonomy: Institutions, Policies and Legitimacy in Multilevel Europe

The Politics of Justice in European Private Law intends to highlight the differences between the Member States' concepts of social justice, which have developed historically, and the distinct European concept of access justice. Contrary to the emerging critique of Europe's justice deficit in the aftermath of the Euro crisis, this book argues that beneath the larger picture of the Monetary Union, a more positive and more promising European concept of justice is developing. European access justice is thinner than national social justice, but access justice represents a distinct conception of justice nevertheless. Member States or nation states remain free to complement European access justice and bring to bear their own pattern of social justice.

The Politics of Justice in European Private Law: Social Justice, Access Justice, Societal Justice

In Third Party Funding, Gian Marco Solas, for the first time, describes third party funding (TPF) as stand-alone practice within the wider litigation and legal services' markets. The book reports on legal issues related to TPF in both common law and civil law jurisdictions, and in the international context. It then discusses the incentives and economics of TPF transactions in different legal contexts while explaining how the practice emerged and how it is likely to develop. In addition, the book offers practical insights into TPF transactions and analyzes a number of regulatory proposals that could affect its use and desirability. This work should be read by scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and anyone else interested in how TPF is changing the practice of law.

Third Party Funding: Law, Economics and Policy

The authors present a synthetic view of the evolution of the impact of EU law on the provision of welfare services in the member states of the EU. They distinguish, in this regard, between the core welfare services, in which the impact of EU law is more recent and less important, and the services provides by public utilities, where EU law has had a major transformative impact for many years now. In recent years, however, the distinction between the two categories becomes more blurred. The paper also discusses the likely impact of the Lisbon Treaty, if and when it enters into force, on welfare integration through EU law.

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Welfare Integration through EU Law: The Overall Picture in the Light of the Lisbon Treaty

This paper challenges the "structural social deficit of the EU treaties" argument, referred to also as the asymmetry of economic and social integration within the EU. It shows that in relation to the Member States social policies the EU market rules (competition and State aid law, the free movement rules and deduced from them the public procurement rules) can be also read as social market rules, particularly after the revisions made by the Lisbon Treaty. I.e., this set of norms does not necessarily lead to a destabilization (by de-regulation, liberalization or privatization) of the Member States' welfare regimes, but allows for the inclusion of these systems into the internal market and insofar for the creation of a social market economy in the EU. The thesis is substantiated by a legal analysis of the EU negative welfare integration process structured along the different layers of the EU market rules at which that inclusion is legally implemented: their scope of application, the proportionality test and their impact when enforced.

The EU market rules as social market rules: Why the EU can be a social market economy

This study was prepared by a research team of the European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO) upon a request of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament. The object of the study was described as follows in the commissioning contract: “How to maximise the influence of the European Parliament in light of the Lisbon Treaty, in order to implement the Social Agenda and get the citizens closer to the EU.” The title of the study is a short rendering of that description. EUDO is an independent and interdisciplinary academic organization, fully integrated within the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. Its declared goals are: to produce a permanent and periodic assessment of democratic practices within the EU; to serve as a forum to exchange ideas and good practices; and to be a resource for policy-makers, academics and EU citizen. To reach these goals, the EUDO platform consists of four components, the four EUDO observatories, one of which has, as its central theme of interest, institutional change and reform in the European Union. The EUDO Observatory on Institutional Change and Reforms recently organised, in February 2010, a workshop on the institutional implementation (la mise en oeuvre institutionnelle) of the Lisbon Treaty. The workshop was convened by Paolo Ponzano and Bruno de Witte and brought together practitioners of the EU institutions with a selected group of academics for a thorough discussion of the ongoing ‘implementation’ of the Lisbon Treaty.

Legislating after Lisbon. New Opportunities for the European Parliament

A complex network of regulatory systems has arisen around the provision of media in Europe. In this connection regulating content is a focal point, as content is not only of economic but of vital cultural importance. At Community level a wide variety of measures have been taken to promote this branch of industry, especially in fields in which new and innovative digital technologies are used to enhance the market potential of content and creative products and services. This important book focuses on regulatory interventions in the content industry under Community law. It offers an in-depth perspective on the functioning of the European legal framework for the content industry, its guiding principles, and its explicit and sometimes more fluid interface with policy areas falling largely into Member States competences. In this aspect, the book can also be read as an analysis of the impact of the cooperation between European and Member State regulation when economic as well as social, democratic, and cultural policy goals are at stake. Among the areas of content regulation covered are: legal definitions related to the content industry; branches of the content industry broken down according to content category and distribution system; the division of competences between the EC and the Member States in cultural affairs; Community projects relevant to the content industry; competition rules relating to distribution; market entry and access regulation in the electronic communication markets; specific regulation for such considerations as the protection of minors, protection of health, protection of consumers, and protection of personal rights; ensuring and safeguarding functioning market structures in the content markets; and, harmonization and coordination measures. The basis of this book was a research project commissioned by the Austrian Federal Chancellery in preparation for a seminar supported by the European Commission in connection with Austria's Council Presidency in the first half of 2006. As a systematic overview and analysis of the legal bases of European content regulation, this book will be of extraordinary value to practitioners, policymakers, officials, and academics in the fields of media and communications law. Beyond that, the work sheds a clear and defining light on an area that has an important role to play in the future economic growth and the development of a competitive business environment in Europe.

Regulating content : European regulatory framework for the media and related creative sectors

Joined Cases C-22/08 & C-23/08, Athanasios Vatsouras and Josif Koupatantze v. Arbeitsgemeinschaft (ARGE) Nürnberg 900 , Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 4 June 2009

Dragana Damjanovic

Papers

Welfare Integration through EU Law: The Overall Picture in the Light of the Lisbon Treaty

The EU market rules as social market rules: Why the EU can be a social market economy

Legislating after Lisbon. New Opportunities for the European Parliament

Regulating content : European regulatory framework for the media and related creative sectors

Joined Cases C-22/08 & C-23/08, Athanasios Vatsouras and Josif Koupatantze v. Arbeitsgemeinschaft (ARGE) Nürnberg 900 , Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 4 June 2009