This book is a product of the seventh EU/International Law Forum hosted by the School of Law at Bristol University. The origins of the Forum series lie in the recognition of a need to ensure that scholarship in European Law and in International Law remain in contact with each other, something that has become more difficult over time as the specialty of each has increased. The Forum offers an opportunity to reflect upon developments of common interest and to explore the contribution that those steeped in the thinking of the one corpus of law can make to the thinking of the other. These Fora also seek to bring together leading academics and policy-makers, again encouraging a sharing of perspectives enriching not only the debate at the Fora themselves but also the wider work of all participants.

The theme of the most recent Forum was inspired by the debates surrounding the moves to adopt a new European Constitution. The first volume in the Forum Series was published ten years ago and explored ‘Aspects of Statehood and Institutionalism in Contemporary Europe’. It was inspired by the observation that in the post-Soviet era new states were emerging which sought to express themselves as independent sovereign states through participation in international organisations and, in doing so, they created something of a tension between statehood on the one hand and the expanding role of international institutions on the other.