Article 234 EC ensures that a divergent application of the EC Treaty or of the statutes and acts of its institutions is not allowed in any Member State. Unsurprisingly, its pivotal importance has given rise to a huge number of ECJ judgments and orders – about 700 by the beginning of 2009. Very often, a practitioner needs to establish whether the preliminary ruling procedure called for by Article 234 EC is required in a particular case being pursued in a national court, and any relevant ECJ ruling or order must be located. Herein lies the great value of this book.
Dr Barents’ very useful volume sorts paragraphs of the 700 judgments and orders by subject, making it easy to establish the relevance of a particular Community court ruling to a particular national court proceeding. In this book paragraphs of the judgments and orders are presented in the form of extracts sorted by subject. The subject headings are arranged according to a hierarchical system, descending from such overarching concepts as scope and participation to such precise categories as the following:
There is no doubt that the book’s technique of presenting case law in the form of separate extracts and summaries arranged by topic and sub-topic improves the accessibility of the material. This very practical, time-saving feature will be greatly appreciated by practitioners throughout Europe. This is a reference every European lawyer will want to have on hand.
