UK & EU – Highlights from our EU Collection

It seemed like a suitable opportunity, amid the heated Brexit debate, for us to highlight some interesting books and pamphlets from our EU collection. In what follows, we have focused mostly on early titles from the 1970s which may be of interest today.

But before we do this, let us tell you a bit about our specialist collection. Out of four Inns of Court Libraries, it is the Middle Temple Library which is tasked with collecting EU legal material.

EU collection at Middle Temple Library

The EU law collection was created in response to the upcoming accession of the United Kingdom to the Common Market. Preparations started in February 1972 when Lord Diplock, a British judge and Middle Templar, drafted a memorandum on the cost and scope of a desirable collection of Community law to be set up in one of the Inns of Court. According to the memorandum, the collection was supposed to include Community publications and basic material on the internal law of Member States.

The EU law collection now contains over 7,000 volumes of various materials, including textbooks, loose-leaves and periodicals. Apart from around 500 current textbooks, the Library has also retained hundreds of old textbooks as well as earlier editions and ceased publications. In addition, the Library collects dictionaries focusing mostly on legal terminology in the languages of Member States, if these are available. The collection is currently divided into three groups covering European Union law, Member States law and Irish law (Irish law is separate because it is a standalone specialism, no politics here).

Kenneth Diplock, The Common Market and the Common Law [Reprinted from The Law Teacher vol.6, no.1, 1972]

W. R. Böhning and David Stephen, The EEC and the Migration of Workers (1976)

 ‘The purpose of the publication is to set out the present position [written in 1971] and its implications for Britain. Those who are opposed to Britain’s entry and regard alien migrants as a threat (or, at best, a nuisance) will obviously find additional arguments for their point of view here. Equally, those who are in favour of entry will be able to point to features of the Continental arrangement which are in advance of our provisions in order to strengthen their case. Our intention of publishing this pamphlet […] is […] to provide the information without which meaningful debate on this important issue will be impossible’.

W.R. Bohning, The Migration of Workers in the United Kingdom and the European Community (Oxford University Press for the Institute of Race Relations 1972)

Lawrence Collins, European Community Law in the United Kingdom

The Library holds various editions of this book – the first edition was published in 1975.

Douglas Dosser, British Taxation and the Common Market (Charles Knight 1973)

Europe and the Law. Studies on the Implementation of the EEC’s Common Policy and its Impact on United Kingdom Laws (Conservative Political Centre 1968)

This book was donated to the Library in the year when it was published. The authors were members of the Society of Conservative Lawyers who sat as a Committee under the chairmanship of The Right Hon. Sir Lionel Heald, QC MP

Valerio Grementieri and Cornelius Joseph Golden, The United Kingdom and the European Court of Justice. An Encounter between Common and Civil Law Traditions [Reprinted from The American Journal of Comparative Law 1973]

The article was donated by the author.

David Butler and Uwe Kitzinger, The 1975 Referendum, 2nd ed. (Macmillan Press 1996)

This book was donated by Sir Louis Blom-Cooper’s family. The first edition was published in 1976.

Roy Jenkins, European Diary 1977–1981 (Collins 1989)

This book was also donated by Sir Louis Blom-Cooper’s family. ‘This diary provides the background to two vital issues […]: our relations with the European Community and the state of politics in Britain. Few people are better qualified to know how we arrived where we are than Roy Jenkins. During the period of this diary he was President of the European Commission.’