Putting ‘lobbyists’ and ‘lobbying’ on the EU law map – acknowledging that there is little interest in lobbying by EU legal research – explaining why EU lawyers and especially constitutional law scholars should be interested in lobbying – presenting a framework to study lobbyists as regulated actors under EU law – considering the merits of ethnographically-oriented socio-legal research and the ‘new legal realism’ as methods of studying lobbyists and lobbying.

A powerful development by the European Constitution exists in the rationalisation of the instruments through which the Union may exercise the competences conferred upon it. This has constituted a particularly sensitive issue for the Convention. Under the EC and EU Treaties, the Union uses no less than 15 different instruments, some having the same appellation but entailing different legal effects, others being rarely used. This diversity has contributed to the development of an obscure patchwork of norms with ill-defined scope, legal effects and institutional origin. That situation consequently limits democratic control over governance at the European level.

Introduction to the Special Section – ECPR 2021 Joint Sessions ‘Militant Democracy: New Challengers and Challenges’ – metamorphoses of a Cold War concept – new challengers intensify challenges for militant democracy – evaluation of the effects and effectiveness of militant democracy – new conceptual and normative approaches broaden concept of militant democracy – risk of ‘concept stretching’ – minimal common recognisable core

National parliaments near-universally endorsed in the European Union constitution-building process – Case for national parliaments a composite one: different scholarly approaches and national and European institutions support a greater role for national parliaments for different reasons – The overall endorsement of national parliaments remains a balancing act between competing agendas – Future reforms and treaty-drafting efforts most likely will continue to favour approaches of open-ended political content – No risk for the national governments nor Union institutions.

European Convention on Human Rights and the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights: relationship – Teleological method of interpretation of the European Court of Justice: meaning, justifications, and criticisms – Originalist method of interpretation: meaning, justifications, and criticisms – Original meaning of Article 52(3) of the Charter: text, drafting history, case law – Conclusion: case law of European Court of Human Rights not strictly binding on the Court of Justice of the European Union.

European Court of Human Rights – Protocol No. 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights – Protocol No. 16 as part of the European Court of Human Rights reform – Advisory opinions under Protocol No. 16 – Authority requesting an advisory opinion – The subject matter of an advisory opinion – Legal consequences of advisory opinions

British successes and failures in Barroso Drama. Several reasons for Blair's support for nomination Barroso. Blair's personal choice for Peter Mandelson. Ambivalence in Mandelson's action during the affair. Pressure from London on MEPs.

From ‘strategic autonomy’ to ‘open strategic autonomy’ in the 2021 EU Trade Policy Review – questioning the added value of the qualifier ‘open’ – legal exploration of ‘openness’ in EU external trade – identification of constitutional norms of ‘openness’ in the Treaties – strong constitutional preference for openness – discretion for trade liberalisation and multilateralism and international cooperation but strict obligation for compliance with international law – reviewing recent EU trade instruments in light of these norms – rise in unilateral trade policy instruments adopted since 2021 in pursuit of open strategic autonomy – instruments seeking to restore reciprocity in international trade relations – instruments using access to the internal market as a lever for achieving global sustainability goals – instruments preserving EU security through trade – problematic tensions with international law – very limited ‘openness’ in ‘open strategic autonomy’.

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

Homelessness as a violation of human rights – Criminalisation of homelessness – Insufficient international and European protection of the rights of homeless persons – American charters of the rights of homeless persons as a source of inspiration – Model European Homeless Bill of Rights – FEANTSA – Human rights instrument – Positive and negative rights of the homeless person – Right to exit homelessness – Right to carry out practices necessary to survival within the law – Adoption and implementation of the Charter by Human Rights Cities in Spain, Slovenia and Poland – Soft law – Perspectives for the protection of the rights of homeless persons

EU Accession to the European Convention on Human Rights – Hurdles erected by Opinion 2/13 of 18 December 2014 – Analysis of soundness of the ECJ’s reasoning – Discussion of necessary changes to the Draft Accession Agreement – Criticism that not all obstacles can be removed by amending the Draft Agreement – Treaty change may be necessary – Question whether accession is worth it from a human rights perspective under these conditions

The year 2013 will be remembered as a very good year for the evolution of the judicial conversation between the Court of Justice and the constitutional courts of the member states. This is true at least with regard to the particular form of judicial cooperation that may be considered the institutional channel of dialogue between the Luxembourg Court and national judges: the preliminary ruling mechanism. In 2013 the French Conseil Constitutionnel for the first time in its history sent a request for a preliminary ruling to the ECJ and the latter answered the first preliminary ruling sought in 2011 by the Spanish Tribunal Constitucional. Moreover, the Italian Corte Costituzionale decided for the first time to raise a preliminary reference to the Luxembourg judges in the context of incidenter proceedings. This represents a second step, following an initial one taken in 2008 in so called direct proceedings. The new judicial path of the Italian Constitutional Court (ICC) is in line with the new season of cooperative constitutionalism in Europe.

Council Decision of March 2011 to authorize enhanced co-operation as regards unitary patent protection – Proposed Regulations implementing enhanced co-operation in this area – Proposed treaty concerning patent litigation – Challenges to the validity of the decision authorizing enhanced co-operation – Incompatibility of the patent litigation treaty with EU law – EU external competence concerning intellectual property and civil jurisdiction issues

EU militant democracy – an approach beyond member states’ democratic backsliding – the EU as a first case of transnational democratic self-defence – the EU’s democratic legitimacy – national and supranational threats to EU democracy – instruments and enforcement of EU militant democracy – comparison to national militant democracy – problems of effectiveness

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