The THIRTY-NINE STUDIES in this volume constitute a mirror of the form that Europe has assumed in our days, aimed at responding, on behalf of the states and peoples that comprise it, to the challenges posed to it as an institutionally organized authority by the economy, political action, and human thought.

The law, as legislation and as judicial decision and case law, together with the institutions of political liberalism and democratic governance, compose Europe's identity and guide its actions across the entire spectrum of public and private life.

The studies that make up this volume illuminate a multitude of facets that constitute the European edifice: the prevailing principle of the rule of law, which binds the supranational state and the nation-state to established legal norms and places the protection of individuals, their fundamental rights and freedoms, in the hands of an independent and impartial judicial authority; the institutions of democracy and the effective participation of citizens in shaping political will for European issues; the flourishing of European constitutionalism; the normative content of human rights; the development of European rules and organizational institutions of the welfare state; the encroachment of the European Union's actions into criminal law; the geopolitical actions of the Union.

Forty-one legal experts, political scientists, historians, and philosophers have voluntarily coordinated to offer the readers of this volume their methodologically and substantively constructive approaches. Each one of them, in their own way, honors their colleague, the distinguished current professor at Aristotle University, Petros Stangos, for his long-standing dedication to the works of the university teacher, for his contributions as a legal scholar and intellectual, and for his combative and unconditional commitment to Europeanism.

As is traditionally said and written, the studies in this volume have now left the hands of their authors; they follow their own path and look forward to the successors and younger generations to utilize them and enrich them with their own ideas and spiritual life stances.