Book Review: Executive Power of the European Union: Law, Practices, and the Living Constitution
| Author | Philipp Kiiver |
| Published date | 01 June 2010 |
| Date | 01 June 2010 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1001700205 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
178 17 MJ 2 (2010)
BOOK REVIEWS
Deirdre Curtin, Exec utive Power of the European Union: Law, Practices, and the Living
Constitution Oxford University Press, 350 pp., paperback, ₤2 4.99
Deirdre Curtin’s Executive Power of the E uropean Union represents a densely writ ten
survey and analysis of the EU ‘admi nistration’, both in the sens e of the political
executive, na mely the government-type force that s teers the polic y process, and in the
sense of the admin istrative executive, namely the syst em of authorities that puts EU law
into eect on the ground. Arguably, various developments on the execut ive side of the
European cons titution have come to matter more tha n the legislative process. Curt in’s
monograph, published in the Coll ected Courses series of the Florentine EUI Academy of
European L aw, draws on the author’s erudition and a solid body of empirical research.
And so it must: for mapping the locus and work ings of the EU executive is anything but
a straightforw ard exercise. Rather, it is a multi-faceted and multi-level aair. e notion
of a singula r government-cum-bureaucracy as a branch in a Montesquieuvian three-
branch setup can, in the case of the EU, safely be shelved. Instead, executive functions are
spread between the Comm ission, the Council, comitology committee s, a heterogeneous
array of Europe an agencies, national authorit ies – in fact the main executors of EU law
are the Member States – and networks and hybrids between the above, s taed by civi l
servants who are European or national or both. e list of abbreviations alone il lustrates
the obscurity of some of the actors involved in this game. Cur tin’s book maps this partly
seen and part ly hidden organization – the geological sedimentary layers of executive
authority as she puts it – w ith such cla rity and concision that it should be mandatory
reading for any resea rcher undertaki ng an expedit ion into the a rea of European
governance.
One of the main themes in the volume, in line with the author’s own research interests
and experti se, concerns the accountability for executive action in the EU. Aer all, if the
European executive is as fr agmented and nebula-like as it is, who can then be plausibly
held to account for its outcomes, and by whom? Linear pri ncipal-agent constr uctions
between leg islature and executive, or between Member States and EU bodies, are not
entirely helpful. e landscape is one of multiple principals and mu ltiple delegations
of power with in and across layers of government. Even if t he arra ngements were to
be made more transparent, yet tr ansparency, such as openness of documentation on
the internet, a s Curtin remarks, i s not the same as publicity sustained by actual media
To continue reading
Request your trial