The Lisbon Treaty

Since 1988, Jean-Claude Piris has served as the Legal Counsel of the Council of the EU and Director General of its Legal Service. He is an Honorary Counsellor of State of France, a former diplomat to the UN and the former Director of Legal Affairs of the OECD. He was the Legal Advisor of the successive Inter-Governmental Conferences which negotiated and adopted the treaties of Maastricht in 1992, Amsterdam in 1997, Nice in 2001, the Constitutional Treaty signed in Rome in 2004 and, finally, the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007.

'This book traces the outline of the historical process and in so doing clearly elucidates the roots of the core provisions and also the relationships between them. At the same time the work illuminates the most significant judgements relating to the Lisbon Treaty - for instance the judgement by the German Federal Constitutional Court. The book achieves in effect a comprehensive assessment of existing primary law in the European Union, written by an authoritative hand.' Angela Merkel, Chancellor, Federal Republic of Germany

• Introduction; 1. Origins and birth of the Treaty of Lisbon; 2. General provisions; 3. Democracy; 4. Fundamental rights; 5. Freedom, security and justice; 6. Institutions; 7. External affairs; 8. Financial, economic, social and other internal affairs; 9. Conclusion: the Treaty of Lisbon and beyond; 10. Annexes.