European Law, Sources of European Law, European Courts

key terms: European law, community law, sources of european law, legislation, ECJ, CFI,
Landmark cases:Van Gend & Loos, Costa Enel.

1. European Law=Community Law

NO EU LAW, European Union doesn’t produce law, only the first pillar of EU creating all
the law.

2. Sources of European Law:

1st source: founding treaties
ECSC (Treaty of Paris) Paris 18-04-1951(year of proposing)
i.f. 23-07-1952 (year of implementation)
Euratom Rome 25-03-1957
i.f. 01-01-1958
EEC (Treaty of Rome) Rome 25-03-1957
i.f. 01-01-1958

2nd source: legislation

Regulation: with binding force, ruled by institution; all the countries have to implement it
Directive: with binding force, but can be harmonized with national law in a certain period,
and not all the countries, but some addressed countries; after the certain period, EU
directive will prevail
Decisions: binding force, no further implementation, addressed to specified states or
individuals.
Recommendation and opinion: those are soft law, pursuasive

3rd source: case law: ECJ+CFI rulings, principles.

3. ECJ + CFI

ECJ=European Court of Justice

Location: Luxembourg
Function: to ensure the community law or European law are implemented well, official for
major cases.
Composition: 25 judges, 8 advocates-general
Disputes between: Member States VS, European Community, institutions, individual
rights and EU Member States.

CFI=Court of First Instance

Function: to ease the workload of ECJ with fast track procedure, fast law, efficient
disputes between EC and staff; competition, anti-dumping cases; certain matters related
to ECSC, and Euratom; cases bought by national/legal persons.
4. the relation between European Law and National Law
European Law is the essence of each member states' national law.

当欧盟成员国的国家法律和欧盟法律发生冲突时 , 哪个法律具有主导权 ? European Law.

How to erase the conflict?
a) The direct applicability of community law: community law refers rights and imposes
obligations directly not only upon community institutions but also on the citizens.
b) Primacy of community law: community law supersedes all national provisions that
diverge from a community rule and take their place in the national legal orders.
if community law were to be subordinated to national law, there would be no uniform and
equal application of community law in all members states. Nor would the community be
able to perform the tasks entrusted by member states. The community's ability to function
would be jeopardized, and the construction of a united Europe on which so many hopes
rest would never be achieved.

Example: in Netherlands some certain soft drugs are legal, but there is one kind named
"1$$!#EW" (forgot the name), is illegal by Dutch national law. a guy A sells this kind of
drug, certainly he is illegal under Dutch law, but finally he is not guilty, due to the fact of
European law, and European law is superior than national law, so he is just a lucky guy.

5. Landmark Cases:
Van Gend & Loos started in 1962; rule done in 1963
Conclude in one sentence: 1. states have limited their sovereign rights for the benefit of
the community law. Subjects of community law comprise member states and their
nationals. 2. Individual could claim treaty-based right when there are any conflicts.

The object of the treaty: implies that this treaty is more than an agreement which merely
creates mutual obligations between the contracting states

The Treaty Article 12 must be interpreted as producing direct effects and creating
individual rights which national courts must protect.

Loss for sovereignty implies gains for individuals

The conclusion: the community constitutes a new legal order of international law for the
benefit of which the states have limited their sovereign rights, albeit with limited fields,
and the subjects of which comprise not only member states but also their nationals.

Costa Enel

Principle of supremacy, when the national law and community law get into conflict,
community law is applied
Idea behind "direct effect"

"Direct effect" of a provision of EC law was first developed as the right of an individual to
enforce rights that derive from the EC Treaty before its national court although the treaty
was not intended to grant rights to individuals. The purpose of this doctrine was to ensure
effectiveness of Community law. Later the case law of the ECJ considered also the
possibility of direct effect of other legal norms than treaty provisions.

EC treaty is Treaty of Rome