This comprehensive Research Handbook investigates the success of EU law enforcement processes. Going beyond traditional analyses of administrations and courts in isolation, it focuses on the increased cooperation seen between national and EU authorities, and on the widening variety of means used to enhance compliance with EU norms. Bringing together leading experts from law, political science, economics and socio-legal studies, this Research Handbook provides a state-of-the-art analysis of EU enforcement laws, policies, and scholarship. It presents conceptual, institutional, and sectoral perspectives on EU law enforcement, advancing existing knowledge on why, when, and how laws are being followed or disobeyed. Contributors explore enforcement in specific EU policy areas, including foreign relations, economic policy, the internal market, competitiveness, and citizen rights. It argues that an overarching EU enforcement strategy would be more successful than the current model of diverse methods of enforcement in different policy areas. Employing multi-dimensional and comparative approaches, the Research Handbook on the Enforcement of EU Law will be a valuable resource for scholars of European law and politics, public administration, governance, and compliance. It will also be a useful guide for public officials seeking to (re)design and assess effective and enforceable policies.

Research Handbook on EU Institutional Law offers a critical look into the European Union: its legal foundations, competences and institutions. It provides an analysis of the EU legal system, its application at the national level and the prevalent role of the Court of Justice. Throughout the course of the Handbook the expert contributors discuss whether the European Union is well equipped for the 21st century and the numerous crises it has to handle. They revisit the call for an EU reform made in the Laeken Conclusions in 2001 to verify if its objectives have been achieved by the Treaty of Lisbon and in daily practice of the EU institutions. The book also delves into the concept of a Europe of different speeds, which - according to some - is inevitable in the EU comprising 28 Member States. Overall, the assessment of the changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty is positive, even if there are plenty of suggestions for further reforms to re-fit the EU for purpose.

EU law and governance have faced a new development – the proliferation of EU enforcement authorities, which have grown in number over the last 15 years. These entities, either acting alone or together with national enforcement authorities, have been investigating and sanctioning private actors on their compliance with EU law. Law Enforcement by EU Authorities investigates whether the system of control (in terms of both judicial and political accountability) has evolved to support the new system of law enforcement in the EU.

This comprehensive Research Handbook discusses how the EU has used its regulatory power to steer towards environmentally friendly behaviour, delving into the deep concerns related to the compliance with and enforcement of EU environmental law. It also highlights the important role of civil society’s use of environmental procedural rights, and characterizes how the CJEU case law has contributed to the effective implementation of EU environmental legislation.

It is clear that the current crisis of the EU is not confined to the Eurozone and the EMU, evidenced in its inability to ensure the compliance of Member States to follow the principles and values underlying the integration project in Europe (including the protection of democracy, the Rule of Law, and human rights). This defiance has affected the Union profoundly, and in a multi-faceted assessment of this phenomenon, The Enforcement of EU Law and Values: Ensuring Member States' Compliance, dissects the essence of this crisis, examining its history and offering coping methods for the years to come. Defiance is not a new concept and this volume explores the richness of EU-level and national-level examples of historical defiance – the French Empty Chair policy–, the Luxembourg compromise, and the FPÖ crisis in Austria - and draws on the experience of the US legal system and that of the integration projects on other continents. Building on this legal-political context, the book focuses on the assessment of the adequacy of the enforcement mechanisms whilst learning from EU integration history. Structured in four parts, the volume studies (1) theoretical issues on defiance in the context of multi-layered legal orders, (2) EU mechanisms of acquis and values' enforcement, (3) comparative perspective on law-enforcement in multi-layered legal systems, and (4) case-studies of defiance in the EU.

This comprehensive volume comprises original essays by authors well known for their work on the European Union. Together they provide the reader with an economic analysis of the most important elements of EU law and the mechanisms for decisions within the EU. The Handbook focuses particularly on how the development of EU law negotiates the tension between market integration, national sovereignty and political democracy. The book begins with chapters examining constitutional issues, while further chapters address the establishment of a single market. The volume also addresses sovereign debt problems by providing a detailed analysis of the architecture of the EU's monetary institutions, its monetary policy and their implications. The depth and breadth of the Handbook's coverage make it an essential reference for students, scholars and policymakers interested in the complexities of the European Union.

Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law takes stock of the evolution of this fascinating area of private law to date and identifies key themes for the future development of the law and research agendas. The Handbook is divided into three parts: