The European Journal of International Law Vol. 19 no. 4 © EJIL 2008; all rights reserved
La libre circulation des personnes. Etats des lieux et perspectives
Dominik Hanf and Rodolphe Muñoz (eds), La libre circulation des personnes. Etats des lieux et perspectives.Brussels: P.I.E. Peter Lang, 2007. Pp. 332. $64.95. ISBN: 9789052010618.‘O let not Time deceive you/You cannot conquer Time’, warned the chiming clocks in a city of one of Auden's poems. Just as for lovers, Time is important also for lawyers, at least to an extent not to be ignored. Only a few groundbreaking or particularly elegant works in law are still read, loved, and re-edited years after being written. This is particularly true when applied to such an overwhelmingly dynamic field as the law of European integration. While Pierre Pescatore's Droit de l’intégration (1972) and Eric Stein's Thoughts from a Bridge (a retrospective collection, 2000) are still acute, the pressure of time notwithstanding; the majority of old writings usually end up in the closed stacks of libraries, unread, not needed, and of no use.
Given this reality, producing books which are inherently and obviously outdated is probably the worst sin any writer or editor can commit. The reasons behind committing such sins are beyond the scope of this review, which is to discuss the contribution made by La libre circulation des personnes to the literature on the free movement of persons. Such contribution is largely confined to bringing disappointment. This book, which appeared in 2007, not only fails to acknowledge the leading contributions to the field by, inter alia, Dora Kostakopoulou, Jo Shaw, Francis Jacobs, and others, it also contains a totally distorted vision of the European Union. Four years after enlargement the book still talks about the Union of 15, still speaks of the future accession of the Central and Eastern European States to the Union (at 99) and of ‘the "Schengen-Land" – currently ... compris[ing] 13 of the 15 Member States’ (at 285), and appears to be simply frozen in time, and hence totally removed from current academic discussions, whether they concern new EU citizenship developments or the Lisbon Treaty. Indeed, the book does not even know what the Treaty of Lisbon (or, for that matter the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe) is, citing the Laeken Declaration on numerous occasions. It would have been interesting, probably, in the year 2003, but not now. Too many things have happened in the EU in the last few years. The failure to update the text cannot be excused. The book is a bad example of committing the sin discussed above: its very raison d’être is entirely unclear.
While one of the contributions to the volume is more or less updated (the overview of EU citizenship developments by Hanf), the absolute majority of other chapters are very much outdated, the worst example probably being the chapter by Inglis, which still anticipates the big Eastern enlargement and in which not a word is said about the legal particularities of the last enlargement to include Bulgaria and Romania. In such a context it makes little sense to go into details – those enjoying old periodicals will find their pleasure in reading this book.
It is necessary to say, however, that the bad editing notwithstanding, several contributions are of very high quality, especially the chapter by Vervaele dealing with the Mercosur. Also chapters dealing with EuroMed, free movement of third-country nationals, and third-country nationals who are family members of EU citizens are of illuminating quality, their ‘frozen’ state notwithstanding. However, because of the years that have passed since they were written, they lack acuteness. What was probably new and fascinating four years ago is part of the mainstream today.
To be recommended to the collectors of history. All others will not need this book.
Individual Contributions
- Dominik Hanf, Le développement de la citoyenneté de l’Union européenne;
- Peter Arnt Nielsen, Behind and Beyond Brussels I – An Insider’s View;
- Anne Weyembergh, L’espace pénal européen: état des lieux et perspectives;
- Rodolphe Muñoz, Les cas particuliers des ressortissants communautaires des pays «out» (Royaume-Uni, Irlande et Danemark);
- Kirstyn Inglis, Treading the Tightrope between Flexibility and Legal Certainty: The Temporary Derogations from the Acquis on the Freedom of Movement of Workers and Safeguard Measures under the Accession Treaty;
- Cédric Chenevièvre, Régime juridique des ressortissants d’États tiers members de la famille d’un citoyen de l'Union;
- Georgia Papagianni, Free Movement of Third Country Nationals on the Eve of 1 May 2004: Another Missed Deadline?;
- Erwan Lannon, L’absence de libre circulation des personnes physiques et la lutte contre l’immigration illégale au sein de l’espace euro-méditerranéen;
- Pedro Cabral, La libre circulation des soins médicaux dans l’Union européenne;
- Sean Van Raepenbusch, Libre circulation et sécurité sociale;
- Pablo Dengler, Libre circulation des personnes et imposition directe;
- Sonia Gsir, Vers une politique commune d’immigration par le partenariat international et l’intégration des migrants?;
- Jörg Monar, The EU’s Outer Shield of Free Movement: Integrated External Border Management and the European Border Guard Project;
- John A.E. Vervaele, Economic Integration and Judicial and Police Cooperation in Mercosur
- Peter Arnt Nielsen, Behind and Beyond Brussels I – An Insider’s View;
University of Groningen
Email: d.kochenov{at}rug.nl
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