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The article analyses the possible limits of negative integration on the basis of the competition law of the European Community. In contrast to the fundamental freedoms of the Community, its competition law is not subject to any explicit exceptions or limitations (apart from the possibility of an exemption under Art. 81 (3) EC). That is problematic, because in competition law just as with the fundamental freedoms issues of competence must be taken into account. An appropriate relationship between supranationality (internal market, market opening) and conflicting national requirements and competences must be taken into account in the determination of the scope and limits of the Community law prohibition of anti-competitive agreements. While the Member States, because of the increased sensitivity of the European Court of Justice in relation to the fundamental freedoms, have won back some national room for manoeuvre, such a tendency towards flexibility is less apparent in the case law of the European Court of Justice on competition law. Such indications as exist are apt to be characterised and developed as a European rule of reason. Considerably more thorough-going are comments in the legal literature that directly challenge the principle of the priority of Community law and in the case of so called indirect or diagonal conflicts argue that supremacy should be treated as an "optimisation principle" according to the principle of "practical concordance". In contrast, it is suggested here that the principle of "practical concordance" should only be applied to the (growing) number of horizontal conflicts between European competition law and the other policies of the Community. For diagonal conflicts between Community competition law and other policies of national law it seems appropriate to read across the limitations inherent in the Cassis- jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice to Arts. 81 I and 82. This contribution does not include any consideration of the procedural aspects of competition law or of the ideas for reform discussed by the Commission in its White Paper of May 1999 on modernising the application of the provisions of competition law.

It is not just the internal market for goods and services that is becoming a reality in Europe now, but increasingly also an 'internal market for legal education'. By reference to the example of the system of legal education in Germany, the European desiderata and requirements are established. These are then compared with the actual situation in relation to legal training in Germany, and in particular by reference to the law faculties and from the perspective of both foreign and domestic students. Building on this, various considerations are highlighted. Teaching (teaching organisation personnel and methods) and research (scientific debate) must be 'Europeanised'. The law faculties must be much more outward looking; European networks and collaborative enterprises in research and teaching must be pursued. Faculties must also give better advice about their individual strengths (information and transparency). A Europeanisation of legal education actually offers considerable opportunities for niche marketing.

Politische Steuerung erfolgt - neben anderen Steuerungsmitteln - durch Recht. Dabei ist die Gesetzgebung nicht das einzige Instrument des Staates, um das Verhalten der Bürger zu beeinflussen bzw. zu steuern. Die Steuerungswirkung generell-abstrakter Normierungen (Gesetze) wird vielmehr durch andere Staatsfunktionen, wie Regierung, Haushaltsfestsetzungen, administrative Planung, besonders aber durch die Rechtsanwendung ergänzt und korrigiert. Während die sechziger und siebziger Jahre durch Steuerungsoptimismus und Planbarkeitseuphorie gekennzeichnet waren, ist heute in der vielbeschworenen postmodernen Gesellschaft ein vor allem systemtheoretisch gestützter Steuerungspessimismus zu beobachten. Die Diskussion verläuft dabei zwischen der Notwendigkeit und Möglichkeit marktmäßiger Steuerung gesamtökonomischer Entwicklungen, die insbesondere die Ökonomische Analyse des Rechts aufzeigt, einerseits und dem Steuerungsskeptizismus der funktionalen Systemtheorie andererseits. (Zeitschrift f. Rechtspolitik / AuD)