BOOK REVIEW
CHRONIQUE BIBLIOGRAPHIQUE
Dominik Lasok & John W. Bridge, Law and Institutions of the European
Communities, 4th ed. London: Butterworths, 1987.Pp. lxxvi, 513 [$77.001.
Reviewed by Frederik Harhoff*
When this book first appeared in 1972, it was considered to be among
the best of the relatively few instruments in English for the teaching of
European Community Law following the United Kingdom’s accession to
the EEC. Since then, a number of other outstanding introductions to the
legal system of the EEC have been published in English, not only by Eu-
ropean authors, but also by Americans.’ Lasok’s and Bridge’s book, which
has concurrently been revised and has now appeared in its fourth edition,
is still one of the leading comprehensive textbooks in English on this subject.
In its preface, the authors state that this revised and enlarged edition, “[flike
the previous editions … is devoted to the structure of the Institutions and
the Principles of Community Law with the necessary emphasis on the con-
stitutional aspects and the relationship between the Community, interna-
tional law and national law of the Member States. It differs from the previous
editions in so far as the introductory chapters designed to familiarise the
British lawyer with this new phenomenon have been reduced in volume,
whilst chapters 13 and 14 devoted to the Economic Law of the Communities
have been enlarged, not only to reflect the growth in that area but also to
serve the teaching Institutions in which the Constitutional and the Economic
Law of the Communities are offered in one integrated course. ‘ 2
As its preceding version, this edition is divided into four parts.
Part one is entitled “The Nature of the European Communities and of
Community Law” and relates to the history of the Communities and their
legal status, including the nature and sources of Community Law.
* Professor of International Law and EEC Law, University of Copenhagen; Visiting Professor,
Faculty of Law, McGill University.
‘E.g. H. Smit & RE. Herzog, The Law of the European Economic Community – A Com-
mentary on the EEC-Treaty, 6 vols (New York: Mathew Bender, 1976); E. Stein et aL, European
Community Law and Institutions in Perspective: Text, Cases and Readings (New York: Bobbs-
Merrill, 1976). See also, for other European authors, P.S.R.E Mathijsen, A Guide to European
Community Law, 4th ed. (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1985).
2D. Lasok & J.W. Bridge, Law and Institutions of the European Communities, 4th ed. (Lon-
don: Butterworths, 1987) at v.
1988]
BOOK REVIEW
Part two, “The Law of the Institutions”, offers a comprehensive de-
scription of the institutional structure of the Communities, notably the Com-
mission, the Council, the European Parliament and the Court of Justice. In
addition, a chapter is assigned to introducing the ancillary Community in-
stitutions, such as the Economic and Social Committee and the Court of
Auditors, among others.
Part three, “The Relationship between Community Law and the Mu-
nicipal Law of the Member States”, deals with the implementation and
enforcement of Community Law in national law. Chapter 12 is in particular
devoted to the relationship between EEC Law and the law of the United
Kingdom. Finally, part four is devoted to “The Law of the Economy” of
the EEC. Thus, Chapter 13 deals with the Common Market and the “Four
Freedoms”, i.e. the free movement of goods, persons, capital and services
within the entire Community territory. Chapter 14 presents the various
Community Policies and is subdivided into a description on the one hand
of policies that are laid down directly in the Treaty of Rome, especially the
Agricultural Policy and the Competition Policy, and on the other hand of
new policies that have been created out of necessity within the framework
of the Treaty, notably those in the fields of energy, environment, consumer
standards, industry, science and technology, and education and culture.
Each chapter is elaborately and richly annotated with references to the
decisions of the European Court of Justice, and an appendix provides ex-
tensive lists of further reading for each chapter. The index is also well-
structured and easily accessible with relevant key words. In the beginning
of the book, the reader will find highly useful tables of statutes, European
Communities legislation, conventions and other enactments and, last but
not least, an impressive list of cases from the European Court of Justice.
These additional tools make this book a precious resource in both the study
and the teaching of EEC Law. In general, the book is well written and
deserves attention as an intelligible presentation and one of the most com-
prehensible textbooks in a complex field. After all, thirty years of economic
and political integration among six to twelve Member States within prac-
tically every important area of legislation has generated legal structures of
ever increasing complexity; writing a well structured introduction to EEC
Law is no doubt a very comprehensive task, which the authors have handled
admirably in this case. It provides both basic knowledge and precise facts
of the European Communities while at the same time escaping the banal
and cheerless enumerative descriptions of many ordinary introductions.
The title of the fourth edition (unlike the preceding edition) no longer
appears as a mere “Introduction” to EEC Law, but is now entitled boldly:
“Law and Institutions of the European Communities”. It is difficult to see
a justification for this, since the book is still –
for very good reasons and
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[Vol. 33
notwithstanding its qualities –
structure and content as before.
an introduction having much the same
In particular for Canadian students, the deletion of the bilingual
(French-English) “EEC-legal vocabulary” in Chapter 3 of the new edition
is unfortunate. Since the Official Journal is most widely available in these
two languages it would be convenient to have a list of common expressions
in both languages at hand. The authors approach the subject with a common
law perspective which is a great advantage for readers of that same back-
ground, but this approach creates methodological problems and impairs
clarity at times. For instance, the discussion of the concept of “direct appl-
icability” (or “direct effect”) 3 of EEC Treaty provisions and directives (the
latter of which, originally and in principle, are not directly applicable, but
on which the Court of Justice has conferred direct effect under certain con-
ditions) is not adequate from a civil law point of view.
First, the concept of “direct applicability” or “direct effect” for pro-
visions binding only Member States is not merely “derived from the monist
concept of international law and the self-executing nature of certain Trea-
ties”, 4 but could rather be understood as a device employed by the Court
to circumvent limitations in the implementation of EEC Law caused by the
reluctance of Member States to cede in practice the sovereignty that they
have already given up in law. This, of course, poses profound questions as
to the character of regulations and directives respectively, and in fact chal-
lenges the coherence of the system of legal sources in the Community.
Secondly, the conditions under which the Court of Justice has conferred
“direct effect” to provisions addressed only to Member States are not il-
luminated very clearly in the book. They are of course important to the
understanding of this problem.
Thirdly, the concept of “direct applicability” (or “direct effect”) is not
treated in such a way as to leave the average reader with a clear under-
standing of why individual obligations can very well be created by directly
applicable Treaty provisions, but not by directly applicable provisions in a
directive.
For most civil law jurisdictions in Europe, the concept of “direct appl-
icability” of particular provisions in the Treaty and in certain directives
does present complicated legal problems, which contrast with the pragmatic
law-making process of common law systems.
31bid. at 301ff.
4Ibid. at 302.
1988]
CHRONIQUE BIBLIOGRAPHIQUE
A similar kind of observation could be addressed to the book’s treat-
ment of the supremacy of EEC Law as against the national law of the
Member States. The authors state that the supremacy of Community Law
is “the logical consequence of the federal concept of the Community”, and
yet at the same time “can be deduced from the Member-States’ constitu-
tional law.”‘ 5 Not many of the European constitutions, however, have been
designed to allow for an eternal surrender of the last word on any given
legal conflict between Community Law and municipal law. The authors’
analysis may thus eventually gloss over the deep complexity of the political
and constitutional problems that at least some member countries have faced
by reason of their accession to the European Communities.
Clearly, this book should be read together with Lasok’s other work The
Law of the Economy in the European Communities6 in order to gain an
image of the full scope of EEC Law; the last part of the work under review
here therefore deals with “The Law of the Economy” so as to at least in-
troduce this important part of Community Law to the reader who abstains
from acquiring Lasok’s second book. However, this part remains only an
introduction to the subject. The free movement of goods and persons, 7 and
in particular the competition policy8 are treated in a very cursory manner
that leaves the reader with only a vague impression of the content and the
vast importance and implications of these parts of the Treaty. Of course,
this is a conscious choice, which the authors have made under the spatial
constraints of a general work. On the other hand, one could certainly ques-
tion the expediency of this choice, since it seems as if the authors have
fallen between two chairs. It would perhaps have been best either to give a
detailed account of the background and the substance of these parts of the
Treaty and explain properly the extent of the rules and the conditions for
their application, or refer to such an account elsewhere. At least in university
teaching, it is an unsatisfactory basis for what is by most students considered
the most interesting parts of EEC Law.
This brings forth the last observation, namely the price of the book. Of
the publisher’s pricing
the authors have no control over
course,
5Ibid. at 150.
6(London: Butterworths, 1980).
7Treaty establishing EEC, 25 March 1957, 298 U.N.T.S. 3, arts 30-36 and 48-50 [hereinafter
the Treaty of Rome].
8Ibid., arts 85-90.
846
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[Vol. 33
policy, but the cost almost prohibits the use of this book in university teach-
ing because it ranges not only beyond the financial capacity of most students,
but also beyond the price of comparable books printed by other publishers
for university teaching purposes.
