David Edward and Robert Lane, EDWARD AND LANE ON EUROPEAN UNION LAW Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (http://www.e-elgar.co.uk), 2013. ccxi + 988 pp. ISBN 9780857931047. £250.

DOI10.3366/elr.2015.0268
Published date01 January 2015
Date01 January 2015
Pages163-164

Edward Elgar describe this book as a “fully updated and expanded new edition of a classic text”. As understatements go, this surely must be close to being the understatement of the century: essentially, and as Edward and Lane also state in their preface, this is a new book which, in terms of its substantive coverage, spans more than ten times the number of pages of the first edition (86 pages of substantive text plus 5 pages of appendices, published in 1991) and more than six times the number of pages of the second edition (145 pages of substantive text plus 11 pages of appendices, published in 1995). Written now in its entirety by Lane, little remains of the text contained in either of the previous two editions, which is not surprising, given that 18 years have passed since the publication of the second edition; 18 years which not only saw the progressive expansion from 15 to 28 Member States but also many (either failed or successful) efforts to fundamentally and substantially reform what is now known as the European Union. Two things however have fortunately remained the same since the publication of the first edition: first, the logical and clear structure of the previous editions; second, the aim of the original book to, as Edward and Lane reiterate in their preface, “state the law as simply as possible and provide the reader with quick access to the primary materials”. There is no doubt that Edward and Lane have been successful in reaching this aim. There are copious books on European Law, aimed at students and/or practitioners, which cover (on the face of it) exactly the same subjects as Edward and Lane and which span roughly the same number of pages. There are however only a few of these books which explain the often rather complex issues of European Law with the same level of clarity and detail without getting lost in the process or which succeed – as Edward and Lane do — in presenting a lively and interesting account of what many readers of EU Law books frequently and unfortunately regard as boring and dull.

The book is divided into four parts: “Part A – The Origins and Development of the European Union”, “Part B – The Institutional Framework”, “Part C – The Sources, Nature and Methods of European Union Law” and “Part D – Substantive Law”. “Part A – The Origins and Development of the European Union” gives a concise yet sufficiently detailed account of the history of what is now the European Union since its first inception in the early 1950s to...

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