Ten years ago, as the European Constitutional Treaty was made ready for signature, this journal was made ready for launching. Both events would take place at the end of October 2004. Our first issue was, of course, devoted to the Treaty. It broke down the document's substance into twenty-four key topics, each dealt with in turn by the members of the editorial and the advisory boards. From that first issue, the course of this journal would become inspired less by the document, however, than by the events concerning the constitutional settlement as it evolved for the Union.

United Kingdom – UK Supreme Court – European Union – The orthodox view of the British constitution: lack of hierarchy of laws – Britain's ‘unwritten’ constitution and the role of ‘constitutional statues’ in Factortame – HS2 judgment makes up for House of Lords' omission in Factortame – Relationship between parliamentary sovereignty and EU law more clearly articulated – A normative-hierarchical constitutional order

European Union's ‘social constitution’ and bailout measures – Are the bailout measures EU law? – Do the bailout measures create legal obligations? – Legal nature of Memoranda of Understanding – Avenues for challenge – Call for recognition of the EU law nature of bailouts and the costs of such non-recognition

European Citizens' Initiative – Direct democracy: power to the people? – Legal framework of the Citizen's Initiative – Review and critical analysis of Commission Registration decisions for European Citizens' Initiative proposals – Admissibility criteria – Inconsistency in registration decisions – Increased legal burden on European citizens' initiative organisers – Institutional mediation or direct democracy?

Summary of relevant Estonian Supreme Court jurisprudence – The equality principle as an enforceable subjective right which is binding on the legislature – Legal, not factual, equality – No requirement of unequal treatment of non-equals – Simple statutory reservation – Incomparability as a non-suitable criterion for determining the scope of the right to equality – Formation of comparison groups according to the most apparent violation – Special equality rights? – Original and ancillary equality application – Three different intensities of judicial review – Coherence.