The editor of EU law of the Overseas, Dimitry Kochenov, has done an excellent job. Not only has he brought together a wide range of contributors with different legal backgrounds and an impressive expertise in a not so common and, for many, exotic theme of EU law, but he has also been able to present a book which is coherent and stimulating. Kochenov and the contributors have maintained analytical depth, as well as high academic and scientific standards, throughout the various contributions. Notwithstanding the great diversity in the team of researchers involved in this project, the end-result is a comprehensive book on, as Kochenov puts it, a ‘unique branch of EU law’, which in the English-speaking legal community previously had been largely ignored.
In French legal writing, for instance, there have been some major publications providing excellent synthetic overviews of the pre-Lisbon situation of the Overseas in EU law such as Tesoka and Ziller (eds), Union européenne et outre-mers, unis dans leur diversité (Presses Universitaires d'Aix-Marseille 2008), along with a number of articles including those by Jean-Claude Gautron and Jacques Ziller. The existing relationship of some EU Member States with their Overseas, and particularly the French practice with the Départements d'outre-mer and Pays et territories d'outre-mer, has inevitably and decisively marked the EU's approach. Important contributions have been made also in Dutch legal writing to clarify the position of the Dutch Overseas in EU law, such as Bröring et al (eds), Schurende rechtsordes: over de Europese Unie, het Koninkrijk en zijn Caribische gebieden (European Law Publishing 2008).
In order to benefit fully from the great variety of the various contributions in EU law of the Overseas, the introduction by Kochenov is a must-read. Along with Ziller, who concentrates on the effect of the Lisbon Treaty on the subject, he leads the reader into the labyrinth of specific territories and dependencies in EU law. This is particularly useful to understand later on in the volume certain legal specificities of the Overseas.
The second part of the book contains contributions on the implications of European integration for the Overseas (Custos), derogations for the Outermost Regions (Omarjee) and a thorough analysis of the relevant case law of the European Court of Justice (Broberg), while Laulhé Shaelou, in a very detailed case-study, examines the principle of territorial exclusion applied to the UK Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus, a topic which, outside Cyprus, is largely unknown.
The next part is the substantive law section of the book. It concentrates on the EU acquis and, through a series of in-depth contributions, considers the following topics: free movement of services (Goldner and Perišin), EU citizenship (Kochenov), custom duties (Tryfonidou), movement of capital (Geursen), EMU (Amtenbrink), EU Criminal law (Fletcher), EU external policy (Blockmans) and human rights (de Wolf). The work covers most of the pertinent substantive law questions regarding the Overseas.
The fourth and last part contains a miscellaneous set of contributions with a strong comparative and interdisciplinary touch by Muller, Pullano, Baetens, Skoutaris, Lawson and Seidman. The last two authors introduce the American experience in the debate. The book ends with an original conclusion which features the personal story of Mike Eman, the Prime Minister of Aruba. As it is well-known, Eman was the driving force behind the landmark Eman and Sevinger (C-300/04) judgment of the European Court of Justice which contains important clarifications of the fundamental rights of overseas citizens.
This brief review can only provide a glimpse at the richness of the topic. The subject is for many reasons particularly complex. Each overseas ‘entity’ has its own history and identity, which inevitably affects its relationship to the EU ‘mother country’. Kochenov assists by identifying three different categories of overseas territories: the Outermost Region, the Overseas Country and Territory Associated with the Union, and a default category comprising territories with sui generis arrangements. While, no doubt, this categorization helps the reader with a theoretical framework as to the degree and intensity of the application of EU law in the overseas, the reality is that each specific situation has its own rules and dynamics. In particular, the different history of these regions and territories has considerably affected their respective positions in EU law, notwithstanding the fact that paragraph 1 of Article 52 of the EU Treaty provides that ‘the Treaties apply to the territories of the Member States’. Unsurprisingly, the third, default, category leads to an extremely heterogeneous group. It would have been helpful for the reader to have had a specific contribution on this category. Yet, because of the great diversity of the many sui generis situations, this would have meant a lengthy and complex additional chapter; the editor has rightly avoided adding further material to an already dense volume.
There is only one critical remark and this concerns the index. In a book such as the one under review, there is a wealth of information and analysis about the different territories and dependencies often only to be found in elaborated footnotes. Unfortunately, references to footnotes are not incorporated in the index and consequently finding Mount Athos (also mentioned in the text but not included in the index) or Gibraltar takes time. It is also a pity that only few geographical entries are included in the index. In addition, some entries seem far from being complete. ‘Kingdom of the Netherlands’, for example, has only one reference to page 60 while there are definitively more relevant references to this entry in the book. However, these index weaknesses in no way diminish the great value of this publication. EU Law of the Overseas will remain the reference work for anyone who is interested in the EU's relation towards the Overseas for a long time.
