Treaty of Lisbon – Fundamental Rights Charter – European Convention on Human Rights – Partial incorporation of Convention in Charter – Incorporation of Charter into EU law with Lisbon – Questions of loss of autonomy for the EU legal order – Gain in direct effect of Convention in EU member states

Lisbon decisions of the constitutional courts in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia and Poland from a comparative perspective – Democracy, sovereignty and identity – Permeability of national and supranational law – Ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and its constitutional foundations – Procedural background and legal outcome of the Lisbon decisions – Differences of institutional self-conception – Parliamentary responsibility for integration – Prior parliamentary assent to the future application of ‘dynamic treaty provisions’ – Different conceptions of national and multi-levelled democracy – Popular vote – Constitutional limits to European integration – Limits indicating the necessity of an amendment and limits protecting the inalienable substantial core of a constitutional order – German Bundesverfassungsgericht only court in Europe spelling out an eternity clause in a detailed, catalogue style manner – Judicial restraint – Ultra vires and identity review – Article 4.2 TEU as an integration clause of EU law and not a derogation clause – Comparative dialectics

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

International law in constitutional change of EU – Rigidity of amendment – EU amending and accession treaties not reviewable – International law in internal development of Union law – Conventions/treaties by member states jointly – Acts of the representatives of the governments – International law in the agreements with third states – Exportation of legal rules – Conditionality policies – Legislating through international agreements

Judicial dialogue – protection of fundamental rights – common constitutional principles – judicial activism – Charter of Fundamental Rights – pluralistic nature of Europe – national particularism – preliminary reference procedure – duty of constitutional courts to participate in dialogue – protection of national constitutional values and traditions – judicial style of European Court of Justice

Institutional and normative convergence – Common Foreign and Security Policy – Pillar Structure – External Relations – Role of the Court – Normative Consistency – EU Legal Order – Legal Nature CFSP – Treaty of Lisbon – Legal Instruments – Decision-Making

Irish legal framework on European referendums – Case-law – Judicial activism – No appropriate legislative reaction – Essential scope or objectives test – Constitutional amendment necessary if test not met – Single Act – Pressure for referendum at each new treaty – Political implications – Positive and negative sides of referendums – Referendum-elites – Government sidelined – Equal access to broadcasting – Issues of equality – Diminished role of political parties

Types of flexibility – Tension: demands for diversity v. logic of uniformity – United Kingdom and differentiation under Maastricht and Amsterdam – Court of Justice (77/05 and 137/05) on Articles 4 and 5 Schengen Protocol: a clear signal disapproving UK's ‘pick and choose’ approach – Lisbon Protocols: unparalleled possibilities for differentiation coupled with coercive procedural constraints and threats of ‘expulsion’.

Third pillar – European Arrest Warrant – Nature of third pillar – Litigation before national constitutional courts – Primacy of EU law over national law – Differing national attitudes with regard to the status of third pillar law – Process of approximation: first pillar and third pillar – Achieving consistency through primacy of third pillar – Judicial protection of position of individual – Lisbon Treaty and the unification of EU law

Second pillar v. first pillar – From Union to Community powers and vice versa – Court's jurisdiction under different headings – Jurisdiction after Lisbon – Choice of legal bases in cross-pillar situations – Dual competence? – Different combinations

Comparative perspective – Guardians of subsidiarity in United States? Not senators, not state legislators – Contrast with EU – EU parliaments do double duty – COSAC – Re-entry of federal courts on the scene – In EU: possible lessening of pressure on European Court – Insufficient time

The Editorial Board has discussed whether it is appropriate to give attention to the Treaty of Lisbon, in view of the uncertainty of its entry into force. We understand that some legal journals are refraining from discussing it until it has become law or at least until the Irish have cleared the way. (…) we hereby present three contributions about that issue:

– Europe's New Realism: The Treaty of Lisbon

Hans-Jürgen Papier

– National Parliaments and the Principle of Subsidiarity – Legal Options and Practical Limits

Jean-Victor Louis

– National parliaments and subidiarity: An outsider's view

George A. Bermann

Institutional reforms – The principle of democracy: the European Parliament and the national parliaments – Bypassing unpleasant national debates by taking the European route – Reinforcement of protection of the subsidiarity principle: most valuable reform – Doubts on the effectiveness – Crucial weakness: creeping transfers of competences still possible

Winner: national parliaments or European Parliament? – Differences between Lisbon Treaty and Constitutional Treaty – Latent rivalry – Lisbon innovation – National parliaments now actors in the Union? – Early warning mechanism as solution of compromise – Dual system of the two protocols: yellow and orange cards – Review – Compliance – Interparliamentary co-operation – Complexity of COSAC's involvement – Link between proportionality and subsidiarity – Conception of representative democracy – Position of the Court of Justice

Rulings in the cases of OMPI, Sison and Segi – Violation of the right to a fair hearing, the duty to give reasons, and the right to judicial protection – Jurisdiction to review lists of terrorist suspects – Extension of Article 35 TEU – Preliminary rulings on common positions – Improvements of the listing procedure – New legal bases for restrictive measures under the Treaty of Lisbon – Recommendations how to reform the autonomous EU listing procedure further

To this day the founding treaties of the European Union contain no legally binding bill of rights in the traditional sense protecting religion, privacy, family life, the freedom of expression, and so forth. As we all know, while the European Court of Justice initially rejected appeals relying on fundamental rights as found in national constitutions, the Court changed its position under pressure of German courts.

Institutional shortcomings of the Third Pillar: efficiency, effectiveness, complexity, legitimacy – Genesis of the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon – Communitarisation of the Third Pillar – Some special institutional arrangements – Quid pro quos: stricter delimitation of the Union competencies and extension of the ‘opt out/opt in’ regimes – (New) foundations for Europol, Eurojust and the European Union Prosecutor's Office

The difference

On 13 December 2007, after a remarkable acceleration of the process under the German and Portuguese presidencies, representatives of the member states put pen to paper and signed the Treaty of Lisbon. Much of the ensuing debate, both in legal circles and among the general public, has centred on its abandonment of the ‘constitutional concept’.