The Law Society of England and Wales has examined the new constitution and published a guide for legal practitioners. It is excellent.

It begins by summarising the main aims and characteristics of the new treaty:

The Constitutional Treaty brings the above existing treaties together. The main watchwords of this new Treaty are transparency and flexibility. On the one hand, the new Treaty is seeking to improve the functioning of the EU by making it work more flexibly, even with an increased membership; on the other hand, it should also increase the transparency of the workings of the EU by consolidating, simplifying and explaining how it works.

It then continues by examining in detail the changes brought about by the treaty, and in particular how they affect solicitors and their clients in the UK. The whole thing is well worth a read, but here are some choice quotes.

The simplification of different procedures for making legislation and the presumption that the ordinary procedure will be used unless otherwise specified, makes it a lot easier for non-experts to understand how any particular piece of legislation will be passed.

The greater involvement of the European Parliament in most EU legislative decisions is welcome as this will contribute to greater transparency in the legislative process.

The method of incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights should not lead to fears of a mass of new rights-based litigation being realised as it will not create new fundamental rights of general application in national law. It will however ensure that a number of new rights (e.g. data protection) are protected in European law.

Although the Constitutional Treaty could have gone further in granting direct access to the European courts for individuals and organisations other than the EU institutions or national governments, it represents an improvement on the current situation.

The greater involvement of the European Parliament in the negotiating of trade agreements could make the ratification process of international trade agreements harder. On the other hand, it creates greater transparency in the debate leading to the adoption of such agreements.

It is often said that EU sourced laws are ‘superior’ to domestic laws. This means that once an EU sourced law is applicable in the UK, it would be contrary to the EU treaties for the UK to keep or pass any laws that contradicted the EU sourced law. This principle has applied in the EU since the Court of Justice developed it in the Sixties, before the UK joined the EU. The Constitutional Treaty would therefore not change the current position.