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Summary public law
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Summary of 8 pages for the course Public Law at UoW (members of the EU)
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What is the EU?Origins of the EU
Post WWII
The idea that war between France and Germany should become not only unthinkable but ‘materially impossible’.
Three Communities
European Coal & Steel Community;
The European Atomic Energy Community;
European Economic Community.
Treaty of Rome 1957
Initial Members of the EU
France;
West Germany (East Germany was under the control of the USSR);
Italy
The Netherlands
Belgium
Luxembourg.
Britain?
Took part in discussions, but fundamentally never wholly understood the project.
Preferred to maintain links with The Commonwealth;
Wanted to pursue a “one world economic system”, with the £ as a key currency.
Hubris?
What did Britain join?
EEC in the 1970’s
- Although the EU has changed significantly since the 1970s, it’s essential features have remained the same.
- The European Council;
- The Council
- The European Parliament (formerly European Assembly)
- The Commission.
- The Court of Justice of the European Union.
Different types of EU law
“The Treaties”
Treaties have been revised regularly since the Treaty of Rome.
Maastricht Treaty created the European Union, of which the EC (former name of the EEC) was part.
Treaty of Lisbon; fundamental rationalisation of the treaties.
Treaty on European Union;
Creates the institutions, their powers, and structure of the EU.
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Creates the rules of the Union.
i.e. that custom duties are banned when moving goods across between EU member states.
Regulations
Passed by the EU Institutions;
Regulations are “directly applicable”.
Are binding in their entirety on Member States;
Without the Member States doing anything to their legal systems…
5,000 regulations
Directives
, Need to be ‘implemented’ by Member States in their own domestic law.
Binding on Member States as to the ‘result to be achieved”.
15,000 directives…
Decisions
Made by the Commission, are binding on the parties involved.
Supremacy
In Costa v ENEL [1964] ECR 585, the ECJ held that EU Law was supreme, over the domestic law of each member state.
Costa was an Italian, opposed to the nationalisation of the electricity sector. He was a shareholder in an electricity
company, in protest he refused to pay his bill.
When challenged, Costa argued that the nationalisation was contrary to Italian Law, but also provisions of the EU Law.
Italian government argued that the Italian courts was required to apply Italian law only.
ECJ held that the Treaties contained rights, which individuals could enforce in national courts; and that EU law prevails
over national law.
By creating a Community of unlimited duration, having its own institutions, its own personality, its own legal capacity…
and, more particularly, real powers stemming from a limitation of sovereignty or a transfer of powers from the States to
the Community, the Member States have limited their sovereign rights, albeit within limited fields , and have thus
created a body of law which binds both their nationals and themselves.
- (1964) ECR 585, 593-4
The integration into the laws of each Member State of provisions which derive from the Community, and more generally
the terms and spirit of the Treaty, make it impossible for the states… to accord precedence to a unilateral and
subsequent measure over a legal system accepted by them on a basis of reciprocity. Such a measure cannot therefore
be inconsistent with that legal system. The executive force of Community law cannot vary from one State to another in
deference to subsequent domestic laws, without jeopardising the attainment of the objectives of the Treaty.
- [1964] ECR 585, 593-4
Simmenthal SpA [1978] ECR 629.
Italian law required an inspection fee to be paid when importing beef from France.
Simmenthal argued that the fee was a barrier to free trade within the EU (free movement of goods).
The Italian Government argued that because the Italian Law requiring the fee was passed more recently than the EU
Treaty, it should take precedence over EU law.
ECJ: Held that EU law should prevail over national law.
Direct applicability…means that rules of Community law must be fully and uniformly applied in all the Member States
from the date of their entry into force and for so long as they continue in force. These provisions are… a direct source of
right and duties for all those affected…
- (1978) ECR 629 (14)-(21)
It follows from the foregoing that every national court must, in a case within its jurisdiction, apply Community law in its
entirety and protect rights which the latter confers on individuals and must accordingly set aside any provision of
national which may conflict with it, whether prior or subsequent to the Community rule
- [1978] ECR 629 [14]-[21]
Direct Effect
If EU Law is supreme, can it be directly enforced in courts of Member States?
YES.
Van Gend en Loos [1963] ECR 1.
EU Law constitutes a ‘new legal order in international law’.
Direct Effect means that the EU law can be directly enforced by EU citizens against Member States in domestic courts.
Provisions of the Treaty;
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