I can still recall the excitement I felt when I first read, for the purpose of a review, the first edition of this book. Here at last was a book on European Community Law where the author’s masterly skill of being able to describe and discuss very difficult concepts of EEC law, such as the topic of direct effect of this strange “foreign” law within the English legal system, in a very lucid and straightforward manner was evident in every chapter of the book. The work was indeed of a different breed, distinguishable from all other EEC law texts available on the market. Instead of the usual descriptive and dry text, we now had a speculative, thought provoking and scholarly book on European Community Law. To my delight, my enthusiasm for the book was shared by my students. Now, we have the long awaited second edition, fully up to date to the beginning of 1988. In view of what I have already stated above, my approach to reviewing this second edition was inevitably different. As an unashamed admirer of Hartley’s work, my expectations were high, unrealistically so. I was eager for more scholarly, speculative analysis which would, in present European jargon, take me beyond 1992!!

However, before commenting on the second edition specifically, it may be helpful to indicate briefly the scope of the work to readers who are less familiar with this area of law and/or with the first edition of this book. The book is divided into four parts, namely Community Institutions (Chapters 1–2), the Community Legal System (Chapters 3–6), Community Law and the Member States (Chapters 7–10), and Administrative Law (Chapters 11–17). Each part contains a short introduction and each chapter is followed by a short bibliography. The book is stated in the Preface to be aimed at the student market. As a consequence, in his second edition, Hartley has shifted the balance of the book in favour of expansion of the