The European Central Bank (ECB) is today publishing a book entitled “Legal aspects of the European System of Central Banks”. The book contains a collection of articles on the European Union and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), the Eurosystem, monetary law, central bank independence and central bank statutes as well as on financial law. The authors are current or former members of the Legal Committee of the ESCB (LEGCO). This book commemorates ten years of work by the Working Group of Legal Experts of the European Monetary Institute and by the LEGCO. It is dedicated to Mr Paolo Zamboni Garavelli, former Head of the Legal Department at the Banca d’Italia and member of LEGCO, who died last year.
CONTENTS (full text book) (3 MB)
INTRODUCTION
Antonio Fazio (download)
BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS (download)
PAOLO ZAMBONI GARAVELLI: A PORTRAIT
Marino Perassi (download)
THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE EUROPEAN SYSTEM OF CENTRAL BANKS
Monetary policy and central banking in the Constitution
Jean-Victor Louis (download)
The EU Constitution: its impact on Economic and Monetary Union and economic governance
Dominique Servais and Rodolphe Ruggeri (download)
Adjusting ECB decision-making to an enlarged Union
Thomas Wagner and Gerd Grum (download)
Legal interpretation within the European System of Central Banks: is there method in ’t?
Frank Elderson (download)
National emergency powers and exclusive Community competences – a crack in the dam?
Chiara Zilioli (download)
Inside EU, outside EMU: institutional and legal aspects of the Exchange Rate Mechanism II
Kirsten Rohde Jensen (download)
Confidentiality of central bank documentation: legal professional privilege in the UK
John Heath (download)
THE EUROSYSTEM
The Eurosystem
Etienne de Lhoneux (download)
The issue of the democratic legitimacy of the Eurosystem: a sketch
Phoebus Christodoulou (download)
The role of the decentralisation principle in the legal construction of the European System of Central Banks
Francisco-Javier Priego and Fernando Conlledo (download)
The role of the ESCB in banking supervision
René Smits (download)
Central bank independence and responsibility for financial supervision within the ESCB: the case of Ireland
Joseph Doherty and Niall Lenihan (download)
MONETARY LAW
The legal status of the euro
Patrice de Lapasse (download)
How euro banknotes acquire the properties of money
Bernd Krauskopf (download)
The legal protection of the euro as a means of payment
Giuseppe Napoletano (download)
CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE AND CENTRAL BANK STATUTES
Central bank independence under European Union and other international standards
Robert Sparve (download)
National experiences in addressing the issue of independence in central bank statutes: (download)
Lithuania / Gintautas Pošiūnas and Liutauras Žygas
Malta / Bernadette Muscat
Slovakia / Milan Gašparík
National experiences in preparing for the integration of national central banks into the Eurosystem: the Organic Law of Banco de Portugal
Jorge Santos and Maria Amélia Saraiva (download)
Break with the past: the Organic Act of De Nederlandsche Bank N.V.
Jan Barend Jansen (download)
FINANCIAL LAW
Tax barriers on the way towards an integrated European capital market: the EU Savings Directive as a challenge for clearing and settlement systems
Joseph De Wolf (download)
The Eurosystem’s credit operations and legal protection of collateral under Community law
Federico de Tomasi (download)
The Hague Convention on the law applicable to book-entry securities – the relevance for the European System of Central Banks
Diego Devos (download)
Optional instruments for the integration of the European financial markets
Antonio Sáinz de Vicuña (download)
EPILOGUE
Lorenzo Bini Smaghi (download)
