THE TWIN EVILS FOR THE BREXITEER
COMPARED & CONTRASTED BRILLIANTLY BY EDWARD ELGAR PUBLISHING

An appreciation by Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers
and Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”

Without a doubt, the long-awaited research handbook for our times has arrived with the twin “evils” (for some) brilliantly covered here by Edward Elgar Publishing as part of their series of research handbooks in European Law, namely EU Law and Human Rights Law.

The editors comment, in the introduction, that the “place of human rights in EU law has been a central issue in contemporary debates about the character of the European Union as a political organisation”. So there you have it- to set out their stall, 29 contributors have come together to produce the research material, and without their enthusiasm the book would not have been possible. It does make our task that much easier to have publications of this standard available to us at a difficult time for the future of both the EU and human rights.

The collection of essays, splendidly edited by Sionaidh Douglas-Scott and Nicholas Hatzis, explores the principles underlying fundamental rights norms and the way such norms operate in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) at a time of major change for the UK with Brexit.

The 29 leading scholars in the field have come forward to produce this handbook discussing both the “effect of rights on substantive areas of EU law and the role of the EU institutions in protecting them”. The structure of the handbook has three parts with the aim being to examine the current state of the law as well as the direction of future developments in the field which we feel will attract a wide and varied readership.

The first part discusses the normative and doctrinal framework for the protection of human rights in the EU. The second part focuses on EU external relations and on the interaction between EU law and other sources of human rights provisions such as the European Convention on Human rights and international law. And the third part considers the influence of human rights in areas where the EU “takes action” as the editors put it.

Described as both timely and astute for both lawyers and politicians, it will appeal we think to both undergraduates and scholars who specialise in European law and human rights issues, including learners who now have these areas as compulsory subjects for their studies. It does also offer a valuable and comprehensive additional resource for practitioners, policymakers, NGO and government officials now at a time of substantial European upheaval.

The publication date is stated is at 28th July 2017 and the book is available in printed form and as an ebook.