Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-294) and index.

Introduction, The question of competence / Loïc Azoulai -- I. The federal model -- 1. The allocation of competences in a federation : a general introduction / Olivier Beaud -- 2. Theoretical deflation : the EU order of competences and power-conferring norms theory / Guillaume Tusseau -- II. The allocation of competences in EU practice -- 3. EU external relations : unity and conferral of powers / Marie Cremona -- 4. The allocation of economic policy competences in the European Union / Roland Bieber -- 5. Legislative and executive competences in competition law / Giorgio Monti -- 6. The EU as a federal order of competences and the private law / Hans-W. Micklitz -- III. The European Court of Justice and the question of competence -- 7. ECJ doctrines on competences / Christiaan Timmermans -- 8. EU law and retained powers of member states / Lena Boucon -- 9. The protection of fundamental rights and the allocation of competences in the EU : a clash of constitutional logics / Edouard Dubout -- IV. Political and legal limits to EU competences -- 10. Limits to the Union's 'internal market' competence(s) : constitutional comparisons / Robert Schütze -- 11. Subsidiarity as a procedural safeguard of federalism / Xavier Groussot and Sanja Bogojević -- 12. The respect for national constitutional identity in the European legal space : an approach to federalism as constitutionalism / François-Xavier Millet.