This was the first title I have read in the Advanced Introductions series, which are published by Edward Elgar, and I was surprised by how advanced it was. As a reviewer, I struggled to imagine to whom I would recommend this book for purchase. It is certainly the work of an expert, and I applaud the immense work it must have been to write. But I hesitate to recommend it for all audiences because I think the basic function of the book is flawed. It is an advanced introduction to European Law which unfortunately was hobbled by a very short page-count. It does not have enough background information to function well as an introduction, and as an advanced text, the limited length leaves the reader looking for more information about concepts and primary sources mentioned.
This is not your “idiot's guide” or “topic in a nutshell.” The book assumes a basic familiarity with the structure of the European Union, and makes good use of the many acronyms associated with its governance. I was very grateful for the table of abbreviations at the beginning of the book, and I must say that I referred back to it many times while reading. As a librarian I also appreciated the index at the back of the book. Because of the advanced introduction viewpoint, the book wastes no time on any sort of popular history of the European Union and proceeds immediately into a discussion of the treaties which created and define the Union.
The chapters are typically well organized, with good structure and sufficient subsections to keep the reader anchored in the topic and provide good stopping points for a reader to consider what she has learned. Because the book begins with the treaties, the scope of European Union law, and conferral, the later chapters refer back to the earlier chapters, so the book is best read in order. However, any person reading this text as a beginner's guide or as a guide to the more day-to-day functioning of the European Union should skip ahead to chapter twelve, “Acts of EU law and hierarchy of norms,” and consider reading that chapter before proceeding on to the rest of the text. Otherwise the reader may find herself on page 105 out of 120 before discovering the distinction between a regulation and a directive.
Professor Ziller shows the similarities and differences between the legal structure of the European Union and other legal systems. U.S. readers will appreciate the comparisons with federal systems and the United States Constitution, which made the multilayered European Union institutions easier to understand. However, unlike some scholars of European Union Law, Professor Ziller focuses more on treaties than on caselaw. This sometimes leaves tantalizingly short mentions of certain cases which can leave a reader wondering what about the details of the case and how the case was resolved. The text is dense, but this is mainly reflective of the subject matter: a section on the “Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy: the European System of Central Banks and the European Central Bank” which was limited to two pages must certainly make use of every word. But sometimes the reader feels that the book might have benefited from a more aggressive editor, as some longer sentences require two or three readings to really detangle the ideas and come to an understanding of the theories.
One of the strengths of the book is how Professor Ziller takes into account the legal structure of the European Union and also shows the way it is perceived politically. He discusses that, for example, there is a tendency for “politicians and commentators [to] complain about a ‘competence creep’ that is attributed mainly to the Commission and to the CJEU […]” These sorts of insights are invaluable to the reader who may already have some idea of the structure and the exclusive competences and shared competences of the European Union, without a perspective on how these are considered and discussed politically.
As I read this book in spring of 2020, I was grateful for the deft way that Professor Ziller dealt with the looming possibility of Brexit by occasionally mentioning that parts of the law might be affected by Brexit or that certain special exceptions made by the United Kingdom to European Union law would not be relevant to the European Union post-Brexit. The book was written in 2019, and if the author had spent considerable time dwelling on Brexit as it was at that time, he most likely would have done a disservice to today's reader and been out of date by the time of printing. Instead, he mentions possibilities of changes which might result from Brexit where relevant and continues on, rendering the text still relevant and useful, no matter what form Brexit may take in the future.
I would recommend this book to a limited audience. The potential purchaser must not mistake this title for a guide intended for a true beginner or as a basic introduction or a history of the European Union. I believe this book is best suited as a complement to further study of the Law of the European Union, for a reader who already has a basic understanding of the structures and history of the European Union's legal system. I think a reader could use this as the guideposts of a course of self-study of the European Union, but would want to supplement this slim volume by looking up events and primary sources mentioned in the text.
In the same way, a professor might assign this title as a primary course text, and supplement it with more in-depth readings about events and structures mentioned, or supplement it with primary sources of European Union law as further readings. But because of the organization and the advanced nature of this text, it could not be used in an introductory European Union Law course without supplementary readings or a reorganization of the text's chapters. This book's limited page count and price would also appeal to students, though the density of the text could deter that audience. It could be a good addition for a library with an extensive European Law collection or as part of the reading material for an advanced European Union law course.
