On 3 November 2009 the Czech Constitutional Court gave its second ruling within a year on the Treaty of Lisbon. The Court squarely rejected the complaints against the Treaty. For scholarship the most interesting characteristic of the ruling is the way the Court distanced itself from the Lissabon-Urteil of the Bundesverfassungsgericht in such unequivocal terms that the judgment's central passages deserve a place in this issue, even though we only dispose of a provisional translation by Jan Komárek and cannot make comments available yet. As it did in the previous judgment on the Lisbon Treaty of 28 November 2008, the Czech Court again belies the established idea that eastern European constitutional courts take the Bundesverfassungsgericht as their guide.

Habermas's normative vision – Strengths and deficiencies – European Union democracy as solution to global problems – Necessity of developing a European civil society – Normative ideal, functional mechanisms, empirical reexamination – Habermas's criticism of Euro-skeptics – Substance-through-procedure mode of social integration – Adequacy of procedural substance questioned – Empirical limits to Habermasian European Union democracy – ‘Multi-segmented governance’ in the European Union – Supranational redistribution? – Legal integration has not facilitated social integration – Scharpf, Weiler, Joerges, Schmitter – Habermas's Sozialstaat principles jeopardized on Union level – Structural obstacle to coordinated European social welfare policy – European politics will resemble Sektoralstaat – Participation, egalitarianism and accountability

Direct effect of international agreements – WTO – Current jurisprudence and theories – Implications for separation of powers and checks and balances – Justiciability – Criticism of current standards: precision and reciprocity – Reversal of dual concept in EU external relations

Doubts about the traditional, positivistic interpretation of Montesquieu's ‘bouche de la loi’-text – Reading Montesquieu in his historical context – England and France: judge made law and parlementaire ideology – Natural law context – Lex animata, lex loquens: King versus judge – The Ciceronian and English background of the ‘bouche de la loi’ – The Fronde and les Mazarinades – George Buchanan, Sir Edward Coke and Calvin's Case

Constitutionality of ethnic and racial statistics for research purposes – Principles of indivisibility and equality in Article 1 of the French Constitution – Visible minorities, discrimination and positive action measures – French republican conception of citizenship – Use of the word ‘race’ – Fear of misuse of ethnic and racial statistics – French alternative of territorial measures – Educational and fiscal advantages – Violation of the right to equal access to education – Ghettoisation – Problems in consideration of Directive 2000/43 (the Race Directive)

Origin of referendum discussion in the Convention. The national debate on referenda. The crucial role of the liberal party. Referendum bill private members initiative. Referendum Act an ad hoc consultative referendum. Referendum the first opportunity for a broad political debate on the EU. Complacency and disorganised arguments of the ‘yes’ campaign. First analyses of referendum.

Review of the implementation of the European Arrest Warrant in England and Wales – Introduction to the Extradition Act 2003 – The European Arrest Warrant in practice – Assessing the Extradition Act 2003.

Kadi – Autonomy – Supremacy – EU legal order – Relationship between EU and UN – Terrorism – (National) Freezing Measures – Effects of annulment – Fundamental Rights – Right to effective legal protection – Right to property – Substantive versus formal hierarchy of norms – Comity – Relationship between Court of Justice and General Court – Bosphorus – Solange – Role and function of the Court of Justice

On 4 March 2010 the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its first judgment on the conformity with EU law of national provisions implementing Directive 2003/86/EC on the right to family reunification. In the case Chakroun v. Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken the Court had to rule on the Dutch implementing measures concerning resource requirements and the concepts of family reunification and family formation.

Influences of the Movimento das Forças Armadas, of earlier Portuguese and of foreign constitutions on Portuguese Constitution of 1976 — A semi-presidential system with originally four political powers: president, parliament, government and Revolutionary Council — Progressive ascendancy of the presidency in practice between 1976–1982 — Constitutional amendment of 1982: Revolutionary Council abrogated, parliamentary powers strengthened, presidential powers reduced — Presidential role in practice not declining, though depending on the political party power constellation — Influence of president as political moderator and institutional regulator at the lowest when political colours of president and parliamentary majority match — President not conducting, directly or indirectly, the country’s general policy.

Coincidence of human rights review by national and European courts – Courts questioning and delimiting each other's jurisdiction – Evolution of judicial review of legislation in Belgium and France – Rules giving priority to national human rights review over European human rights review – Melki judgment Court of Justice – Conformity with Union law – Balance between effectiveness of EU review and effectiveness of constitutional review – Effectiveness of human rights – Obligatory a priori human rights review of secondary Union law

Italian veto in the EU Council reversed by Berlusconi – Italian Parliament: lack of trust in other European Union member states – Italian implementing Act: in between the Framework Decision and the Italian legal order – Case-law of the Corte di Cassazione: interpretations in conformity with the Framework Decision and with the Italian constitutional order – Some reflections on consistent interpretation, the relationship between the legislature and the judiciary, and two very recent decisions of the Corte Costituzionale

‘Foreign relations power’ (auswärtige Gewalt) in the Federal Republic of Germany strongly centralised by the Lindau Agreement in 1957 – Although the German Länder still retain some rights to act at an international level, the Federal Government is the dominant player in the foreign relations of the state – Introduction of Länder participation in European Union law-making and policy-making; new opportunities for them to perform a role in external relations – Cooperative character of German federalism confirmed

In late February 2013, the ECJ handed down the Åkerberg Fransson preliminary ruling (Fransson), a ten-page decision which tackled the unresolved issue of the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (the Charter) to domestic measures. Notwithstanding the Advocate General's effort to investigate the theoretical foundations that legitimise this projection of the Charter upon state acts, the ECJ delivered a judgment which largely followed in the pattern of its own anodyne case-law on general principles. The judgment confirmed that the Swedish measures at stake – cumulating administrative and criminal penalties for tax evaders – ‘implemented’ EU law insofar as they contributed to the effective collection of VAT, one of the sources of the EU's budget. As a consequence, it is for the Swedish judge to check their compliance with the Charter's norm on ne bis in idem. This decision confirms that the Charter applies to national measures that do not transpose EU legislation and happen to fall within its scope only incidentally.

Regardless of the relative conservativeness of this finding, its implications are fated to displease member states and the reasoning of the Court was not compelling enough to prevent distinguishing and criticism. The first attack was promptly brought by the German Constitutional Court, which in its anti-terror database decision made clear that it subscribes only to a restrictive reading of Fransson and does not accept that the Charter applies to domestic measures whose objectives are set domestically, even if their purposes are shared by EU legislation.

Council Decision of July 2010 to authorize enhanced cooperation for the first time – Planned Regulation on conflicts of law in divorce – Analysis of the application of the substantive and procedural rules applying to the authorization of enhanced cooperation in this case – Links between the planned legislation on this issue and other EU or international rules on related topics – Broader impact of the decision upon the EU legal order

Haircut of public creditors as next step in the escalation of the euro debt crisis? – Exploring the boundaries set by the EU Treaty on debt restructuring – Limitations imposed by no-bailout clause and prohibition of monetary state financing – Standards set in Pringle and Gauweiler – Haircut on nominal debt infringes no-bailout clause – Active involvement by European Central Bank violates ban on monetary state financing – Other forms of ‘soft haircuts’ may be compatible with EU law

Brexit – EU citizens’ rights – Direct effect beyond the EU – The Withdrawal Agreement does not protect citizens properly – Copying substantive provisions of EU law and parts of the EU’s supranational features, such as direct effect, does not provide equal protection for EU citizens once a country is no longer part of the EU – UK-specific implementation measures to be set out in Withdrawal Agreement or Protocol – Guarantees also to be set out in primary legislation – UK Government intends to act to a great extent via secondary legislation – relationship between the Withdrawal Act and the Withdrawal Agreement and Implementation Bill