Katarzyna Granat - Böcker

In this book, Katarzyna Granat analyses and evaluates Europe’s experience with the Early Warning System (EWS) which allows national parliaments to review draft legislative acts of the European Union for their compatibility with the subsidiarity principle. The EWS was introduced in response to the perceived ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU and its ‘creeping’ competences, and represented one of the landmark reforms of the Lisbon Treaty. The purpose of this book is to present and critically analyse the functioning of the new mechanism of subsidiarity review and the role that national parliaments have played within this system.Compared to the existing leading publications on the Europeanisation of national parliaments and contributions on the EU principle of subsidiarity, this book offers – for the first time – a profound legal analysis of the procedure enriched by a comprehensive empirical analysis of the activities of national parliaments. It is directed at scholars of EU law and policy, European and national officials, and legal practitioners working in and with the national legislatures.

This book focuses on the Polish Constitution of 1997, concentrating on its structure, its substance and some of the institutional choices made by the drafters. The core of the Constitution is similar to other liberal democratic constitutions, but, in addition, it regulates a number of issues – such as public finances and sources of law – that are new to Polish constitutionalism and to constitutionalism in general. It considers in a detailed manner certain institutional choices made in the Constitution, such as the bicameral parliament, the peculiar structure of the executive branch, as well as the principle of independence of courts and judges, fundamental rights and local government. The book is a vital resource for all those interested in Poland’s Constitution, and the rich comparative constitutional insights the country offers.In addition to explaining the 1997 Constitution in its political, historical, and social context, the book tackles the radical changes, in particular within the judicial branch, introduced by the new governing majority since 2015. These new regulations, constitutional in character, but without formally changing the Constitution, challenged the rule of law, a key component of membership in the European Union. Despite the negative nature of these recent developments, the anchoring of Polish constitutional law in European constitutionalism presents a source of optimism that the 1997 Constitution will regain its position as the supreme law of the state.

In this book, Katarzyna Granat analyses and evaluates Europe’s experience with the Early Warning System (EWS) which allows national parliaments to review draft legislative acts of the European Union for their compatibility with the subsidiarity principle. The EWS was introduced in response to the perceived ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU and its ‘creeping’ competences, and represented one of the landmark reforms of the Lisbon Treaty. The purpose of this book is to present and critically analyse the functioning of the new mechanism of subsidiarity review and the role that national parliaments have played within this system.Compared to the existing leading publications on the Europeanisation of national parliaments and contributions on the EU principle of subsidiarity, this book offers – for the first time – a profound legal analysis of the procedure enriched by a comprehensive empirical analysis of the activities of national parliaments. It is directed at scholars of EU law and policy, European and national officials, and legal practitioners working in and with the national legislatures.