Institutional law is the poor relation in the literature on the EU's constitutional order, particularly compared to the study of the Community's legal system and the protection of fundamental rights in that system. Yet an understanding of the EU constitution demands some familiarity with its institutional law, which has become ever more difficult to acquire in recent years, owing notably to successive rounds of formal Treaty amendment and the judicialization of inter-institutional relations. Moreover, the treaty of Nice illustrates the importance the Member States attach to institutional design. This book seeks to redress the balance somewhat, by treating as a subject in its own right the law governing the structures and organization of the institutions, and relations between them.
