Direct effect

Question 1

What is direct effect? WHich case first established direct effect?

Answer 1

• a method developed by the Court of Justice to enable EU law to be enforced in national courts
• An EU legal measure has direct effect where it confers immediate rights on individuals which national courts must enforce.
• van Gend en Loos

Question 2

What happened in the Van Gend en Loos case? What approach was taken?

Answer 2

FACTS:
Importation of urea formaldehyde from West Germany to the Netherlands by Van Gend en Loos (a transport company). Netherlands imposed customs duty – increased it from 3% to 8%
Transport company sought to challenge this in Dutch national courts – relying on Art 12 of EEC Treaty (which prohibited increases in customs duties)
HELD:
There was direct effect.
- created the Van Gend en Loos criteria
APPROACH:
Teological-based purposive approach – CJEU explicitly declared that it was considering the spirit and general scheme of the treaty as well as its wording

Question 3

What is the Van Gend en Loos criteria?

Answer 3

2 requirements:
- the provision itself must be sufficiently clear and precise
○ Must set out the obligation in unequivocal terms (Cooperativa Agricola)
○ just needs to be sufficiently clear
- it must also be unconditional
○ must not be qualified by any condition
○ this provision will fail if it has to be implemented by Member States

Question 4

Can positive obligations have Direct Effect?

Answer 4

Yes (Alfons Lütticke GmbH v Hauptzollamt Saarlouis)

Question 5

Can treaty articles have horizontal (priv parties) and vertical (state) effect?

Answer 5

Yes

Question 6

Can regulations have horizontal (priv parties) and vertical (state) effect?

Answer 6

Yes

Question 7

Which forms of EU Law have direct effect?

Answer 7

Treaty articles
Regulations
Decisions 
Directives
International Agreements