The Principle of Legal Certainty in EC Law

The Principle of Legal Certainty in EC Law
Author: J. Raitio
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 469
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9401703531

The intertwinement of EC law and national law may create unforeseeability in situations where EC law invades the national cases. This study contributes to the contemporary discussion, which wrestles with questions such as: What have been the visions and objectives for European integration in the last decades? How to describe European Union as a political entity and a legal system? What is the relationship between legal certainty, rule of law, various general principles and human rights?

Legal Certainty in a Contemporary Context

Legal Certainty in a Contemporary Context
Author: Mark Fenwick
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2016-04-02
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9811001146

This book addresses issues concerning the shifting contemporary meaning of legal certainty. The book focuses on exploring the emerging tensions that exist between the demand for legal certainty and the challenges of regulating complex, late modern societies. The book is divided into two parts: the first part focusing on debates around legal certainty at the national level, with a primary emphasis on criminal law; and the second part focusing on debates at the transnational level, with a primary emphasis on the regulation of transnational commercial transactions. In the context of legal modernity, the principle of legal certainty—the idea that the law must be sufficiently clear to provide those subject to legal norms with the means to regulate their own conduct and to protect against the arbitrary use of public power—has operated as a foundational rule of law value. Even though it has not always been fully realized, legal certainty has functioned as a core value and aspiration that has structured normative debates throughout political modernity, both at a national and international level. In recent decades, however, legal certainty has come under increasing pressure from a number of competing demands that are made of contemporary law, in particular the demand that the law be more flexible and responsive to a social environment characterized by rapid social and technological change. The expectation that the law operates in new transnational contexts and regulates every widening sphere of social life has created a new degree of uncertainty, and this change raises difficult questions regarding both the possibility and desirability of legal certainty. This book compiles, in one edited volume, research from a range of substantive areas of civil and criminal law that shares a common interest in understanding the multi-layered challenges of defining legal certainty in a late modern society. The book will be of interest both to lawyers interested in understanding the transformation of core rule of law values in the context of contemporary social change and to political scientists and social theorists.

Criminal Law Principles and the Enforcement of EU and National Competition Law

Criminal Law Principles and the Enforcement of EU and National Competition Law
Author: Marc Veenbrink
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2019-11-20
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9403514418

Although Article 23(5) of EU Regulation 1/2003 provides that competition law fines ‘shall not be of a criminal law nature’, this has not prevented certain criminal law principles from finding their way into European Union (EU) competition law procedures. Even more significantly, the deterrent effect of competition law fines has led courts in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (UK), as well as the European Court of Human Rights, to conclude that competition law proceedings can lead to a criminal charge. This book offers the first book-length study of whether courts do indeed apply criminal law principles in competition law proceedings and, if so, how these principles are adapted to the needs and characteristics of competition law. Focusing on competition law developments (both legislative and judicial) over a period of twenty years in three jurisdictions – the Netherlands, the UK and the EU – the author compares how each of the following (criminal law) principles has emerged and been interpreted in each jurisdiction’s proceedings: freedom from self-incrimination; non bis in idem; burden and standard of proof; legality and legal certainty; and proportionality of sanctions. The author offers proposals involving both legislative and judicial actions, with examples of judges invoking criminal law principles to develop an appropriate level of safeguards in competition law proceedings. The book shows that criminal law can provide a rich source of inspiration for the judiciary on the appropriate level of legal safeguards in competition law proceedings. As such, it provides an important source of information and guidance for lawyers and judges dealing with competition law matters. "The work is well argued and well researched. Indeed, it is almost encyclopaedic in its use and citation of case law and secondary material....This book provides a valuable resource for anyone (whether as advocate, investigator, adjudicator or academic researcher) who wishes to understand how these criminal law principles are used in, and to protect those subject to, administrative law-based competition investigations.” Bruce Wardhaugh (Lecturer at the University of Manchester) Common Market Law Review, 2021, vol 58, issue 1, page 236

General Principles of EC Law in a Process of Development

General Principles of EC Law in a Process of Development
Author: Ulf Bernitz
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 479
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9041127054

What are the basic principles underlying European Community Law? Although no one seeks a purely descriptive answer to this question, the discussion it gives rise to is of immense significance both for theoretical legal studies and for legal practice. Over the years, scholars have convened from time to time to re-examine the question in the light of new developments. This important volume offers insights and findings of the latest such conference, held at Stockholm in March 2007, and sponsored by the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies. The nineteen essays here printed are all final author-edited versions of papers first presented at that conference. Far from merely an updating of the First Edition, which marked a 1999 conference held under the same auspices at Malm�, this book is entirely new. It underscores the importance of discovering the emergence of new general principles--linked, indeed, to such fundamental continuing concerns as democracy, accountability, transparency, direct effect, good administration, and European citizenship--as they develop in such increasingly important areas as the following: core aspects of competition and financial integration law; the ongoing process of European constitutionalization; the application of general principles in the new Member States; the growth of European private law; the successive creation of a jus commune europaeum; and the instrumental function of the EC Court. There is also special consideration attached to such overriding issues as the gap-filling function of the principles within the Community legal system, and the implications of the use of a comparative methodology. The authors include both eminent, well-known experts, many of whom took part in the 1999 Conference, and representatives of a new generation of younger scholars in the field. For the myriad parties involved in the evolution of the European project from a legal perspective, this book serves as a watershed, a thorough inspection of the foundations as they are perceived and understood at the present moment. It is sure to be consulted and cited often in the years to come.

Exceptions in EU Copyright Law

Exceptions in EU Copyright Law
Author: Tito Rendas
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2021-02-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9403524006

Information Law Series Volume 45 In a copyright system characterised by broad and long-lasting exclusive rights, exceptions provide a vital counterweight, especially in times of rampant technological change. The EU’s controversial InfoSoc Directive – now two decades old – lists exceptions in which an unauthorised user will not have infringed the rightholder’s copyright. To reform or not to reform this legal framework – that is the question considered in great depth in this book, providing detailed theoretical and normative analysis of the Directive, the national and CJEU case law arising from it, and meticulously thought-out proposals for change. By breaking down the concepts of ‘flexibility’ and ‘legal certainty’ into a set of policy objectives and assessment criteria, the author thoroughly examines such core aspects of the framework as the following: the justifications for exceptions, e.g., safeguarding the fundamental rights of users; the regimes established in legislation and case law for key exceptions; the need to promote technological development; the importance of avoiding re-fragmentation caused by uncoordinated national legislative responses to technological changes; the legal status of digital technologies that rely on unauthorised uses of copyright-protected works; and the pros and cons of importing a fair use standard modelled after that of the United States. In an invaluable concluding chapter, the author puts forward a set of reform proposals, articulating their advantages and responding to potential objections. In doing so, the chapter also identifies, synthesises and critically examines the various proposals that have been advanced in the academic literature. In its decisive contribution to the debate around the InfoSoc Directive and the rules that guide its implementation, interpretation, and application, this book isolates the contentious structural features of the framework and examines them in a critical fashion. The author’s systematised review of scholarly and policymaking proposals for increasing flexibility and legal certainty in EU copyright law will be welcomed by practitioners in intellectual property law and other areas of economic law, as well as by interested policymakers and scholars.

The Shifting Meaning of Legal Certainty in Comparative and Transnational Law

The Shifting Meaning of Legal Certainty in Comparative and Transnational Law
Author: Mark Fenwick
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 461
Release: 2017-09-21
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1509911278

The principle of legal certainty is of fundamental importance for law and society: it has been vital in stabilising normative expectations and in providing a framework for social interaction, as well as defining the scope of individual freedom and political power. Even though it has not always been fully realised, legal certainty has also functioned as a normative ideal that has structured legal debates, both at the national and transnational level. This book presents research from a range of substantive areas regarding the meaning, possibility and desirability of legal certainty in the context of a rapidly changing global society. It aims to address these issues by bringing together scholars from various jurisdictions in order to examine changes in the shifting meaning of legal certainty in a comparative and transnational context. In particular, the book explores some of the tensions that now exist between the conventional expectation of legal certainty and the various challenges associated with regulating highly complex, late modern economies and societies. The book will be of interest to lawyers concerned with understanding the transformation of core rule of law values in the context of contemporary social change, as well as to political scientists and social theorists.

Private International Law

Private International Law
Author: Franco Ferrari
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 517
Release: 2019-12-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1789906903

Is Private International Law (PIL) still fit to serve its function in today’s global environment? In light of some calls for radical changes to its very foundations, this timely book investigates the ability of PIL to handle contemporary and international problems, and inspires genuine debate on the future of the field.

East African Community Law

East African Community Law
Author: Emmanuel Ugirashebuja
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 553
Release: 2017-03-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004322078

East African Community Law provides a comprehensive and open-access text book on EAC law. Written by leading experts, including the president of the EACJ, national judges, academics and practitioners, it provides the most complete overview to date of this increasingly important field. Uniquely, the book also provides a systematic comparison with EU law. EU companion chapters provide concise overviews of EU law and its development, offering valuable inspiration for the application and further development of EAC law. The book has been written for all practitioners, judges, civil servants, academics and students faced with questions of EAC law. It discusses institutional, substantive and jurisdictional issues, including the nature of EAC law, free movement and competition law as well as the reception of EAC law in Partner States.