State Aid Law of the European Union

Rules controlling State aid and subsidies on the EU and the WTO level can have a decisive influence on both regulatory and distributive decision-making. This field of law has grown exponentially in importance and complexity over the past decades. Rules on State aid and subsidies control are one of the key instruments to ensure that public spending and regulatory measures do not lead to discriminatory distortions of competition. As a consequence, hardly any part of national law is free from review under criteria of State aid and subsidy regulation. In turn, State aid and subsidies law is linked to economic, constitutional, administrative law of the EU and the Member States as well as to public international law. This book brings together leading experts from academia, the judiciary, civil servants from the European Commission, and practicing lawyers to provide expert opinion and commentary on the diverse dimensions of the complex and vital area of law.

Critically analysing and explaining developments and current approaches in State aid law and subsidies, the chapters take into account not only the legal dimensions but also the economic and political implications. They address the EU law applicable to State aid in the aftermath of the recent State Modernization reform, and coverage includes: an in-depth analysis of the notion of State aid as interpreted by the Court's cases-law and the Commission's practice; the rules on compatibility of State aid with the internal market; the rules governing the procedure before the Commission; the litigation before the Court of Justice of the European Union; and analysis of the other trade defense instruments, including WTO subsidy law and EU anti-subsidy law.

Herwig C. H. Hofmann, Professor of European and Transnational Public Law, University of Luxembourg, Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance, Centre for European Law,Claire Micheau,Policy Officer, European Commission

Herwig C. H. Hofmann is Professor of European and Transnational Public Law at the University of Luxembourg. He researches, teaches, advises, and litigates in European and transnational constitutional, administrative, and regulatory law as well as international economic law. A graduate of the Universities of Hamburg and Oxford, he was previously lecturer in law at Trinity College in Dublin and has been visiting scholar and professor at several universities including Columbia Law School in New York, University of San Francisco Law School, Sciences Po, Paris, and Chuo in Tokyo, and is on the boards of several academic journals.


Claire Micheau is a policy officer at DG Competition (European Commission). She is a regular invited lecturer in several universities, including the University of Luxembourg, University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, University of Helsinki, and LUMSA University (Rome). Previously, she held a teaching position in the law departments of Trinity College Dublin and Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. Claire Micheau has graduated with a Ph.D. (Sorbonne Law School and University of Luxembourg, with Summa Cum Laude; PhD award Prix Solennel de la Chancellerie des Universites de Paris for the best doctoral thesis and Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis of the Luxembourgish National Research Fund) and LL.M. at the University of Cologne. She is also qualified as an attorney at the Paris Bar. She has published various books and articles in the areas of EU law, WTO law, State aid law, and tax law.