""The Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies"" provides a forum for the scrutiny of significant issues in European Union law, the law of the Council of Europe, and comparative law with a ""European"" dimension, and particularly those which have come to the fore during 2000. The contributions appearing in the collection are commissioned by the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS), Cambridge, which is the research centre of Cambridge University Law Faculty specializing in European legal issues.
The papers presented reflect the views of experts drawn from the university world, legal practice and the civil services of both the EU and its member states. Inclusion of the comparative dimension brings a fresh perspective to the study of European law, and highlights the effects of globalization of the law more generally, and the resulting cross fertilisation of norms and ideas that has occurred among previously sovereign and separate legal orders.