Book Review: The Outer Limits of European Union Law
| Author | Elaine Fahey |
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
| Published date | 01 September 2011 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1101800307 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
18 MJ 3 (2011) 341
has certainly produced a highly informative book in which he shares his interestin g
insights and a wide ra nge of knowledge with his readers.
Jaakko Husa
Professor, Faculty of Law, Lapland (Finland)
Catherine Barnard a nd Okeoghene Odudu (eds.), e Outer Limits of European Union
Law, Hart Publishing 2 009, vi + 446 pp., hardback, £50, ISBN 978–1–84113–860–2.
is collection of essays, entit led e Outer Limits of European Union Law, e dited by
Barnard a nd Odudu, has a semi-provocative avour in tone. e col lection arises from
a conference in C ambridge in 2007, featuring many leading authorities on modern-day
EU law. e theme that lies behi nd the published col lection of essays is that the Union
of to day is not what was i ntended to be created or acc eded to by the Member States
or cit izens thereof. While ordinarily, proving a negative is challenging, this is not so
for this collection of essays. e scholars writi ng in the col lection overall hig hlight the
many senses in which t he Union is or ca n be limited. O f course, there is little doubt
that a er a prolonged a nd tense period of constitutional reection, that constitutional
competence to act and the limits of Union action are still alive as a matter of law and that
the Treaty of Lisb on has not yet resolved such t hemes. e diversity of contribut ions to
the piece itself demonstrates, however, the expansive v iew that can be taken of the topic.
e editors rightly point out in the introductory piece to their collection that a catalogue
of competences, as provided by the Treaty of Lisbon, would oer a comfort bla nket to
sceptics a nd show that t here are supposed to be limit s to EU law. However, prescr ibed
limits in EU l aw are rarely as xed as they seem. As the editors state, whi le there clearly
may be limits to t he scope of t he EU, as with an onion, pe eling back the layers reveals
more layers, to answer a question which might have seemed deceptively simple. A superb
range of subject s is covered by the individual authors, a ll of whom are leadi ng scholars
in all gen res of EU law, which of course enriches the broader contr ibution of the essays.
e range of subject a reas considered varies from t he expected constitutional que stions
of competence to broader questions of free movement law and competition law as to t he
operation of the case law of the Court of Justice. In truth, it is the earlier contributions of
the collection as to competence t hat most readers will be expecti ng.
Weatherill and Dashwood, on the st rict question of legislative competence and
the limits of EU law, demonstrate the deep-seated c oncerns of those as to the proper
operation of the EU and the uidity of its legal basis so as to enable it to evolve. At the same
time, both are sensitive to the controversy surrounding progress or change based upon
borderline legitimacy or less t han solid legal bases. Dashwood argues that there remai ns
a role for the use of ex. Ar ticle 308 EC (now Article 352 T FEU), albeit an increasingly
limited one. Weatherill argues that legitimacy is damaged if t he EU acts within the
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