EU Law Flashcards
What are the 4 institutions of the EU
1)European parliament
2)Council of the European Union
3)European commission
4)European court of justice (ECJ)
Who is the council of the European union and what is their law making role?
-27 members - one from each state
- President changes every 6 months
- Located in brussels
- Debates and votes on new laws
- Qualified majority voting is used - requires 55% agreement from member states.
What is the European commission and what is their law making role?
- An elected member from each EU country
- Commissioners sit for 5 years
- Proposing ideas for EU law and drafting them.
- Ensuring all member states abide by the treaties.
What is the European parliament and what is their law making role?
- 705 members elected in the 27 member states every 5 years.
- Members sit in political groups not national groups.
- Debating and voting on new laws alongside the council of the EU.
- Deciding on international agreements.
- Reviewing the work of the commission.
Who is the court of justice of the European union and what is their law making role?
- 1 judge from each member country and 11 advocates who are neutral and explain the law.
- judges must be an existing senior judge and they sit for 6 years.
- The court must ensure that in the application of the treaty of the European union, the law is observed.
How does the court of the European union differ from UK courts?
- Paper hearings due to language barriers
- ECJ is not bound by its own decisions.
- An advocate general in each case who present the law to the judges after each side has presented their case.
- The ECJ uses a purposive approach and a wide range of extrinsic aids.
What are the 3 sources of EU law?
Treaties
Directives
Regulations
What are the Primary sources of EU Law
Treaties
What are the secondary sources of EU law?
Legislation passed by the institution of the unions under article 288 TFEU. This legislation comes in 3 types: Regulations, directives and decisions.
What are treaties?
Treaties are membership agreements for the EU containing all the main principles and the 4 freedoms which are: Free movement of good, capital, services and labour.
They are directly applicable in all member states - instantly law.
They have a direct affect of citizens in member states: Vertical direct effect (individual vs member states), horizontal direct effect (Individual vs individual)
What are the 3 types of treaty found in the EU?
Founding - Which set up the EU
Accession - When new members join
Amending - Treaty on European union 1992
What are regulations?
- Secondary laws made by the European commission, council of the EU and European parliament.
- Automatically binding once passed
- Directly applicable using both effects.
Re Tacographs v UK 1979:
When the UK failed to enforce an EU regulation regarding compulsory recording equipment in lorries, the European commission took the UK to the ECJ and won.
What are directives?
- Secondary laws made by the European commission, council of the EU and the European parliament.
- Not automatically binding and instead set out a target or goal for all member states.
What is the impact of EU law on England and Wales?
EU law takes precedent over national law (before brexit).
- EU law is directly applicable in all member states (before brexit)
What is vertical direct effect?
An EU law doctrine which enables individuals to invoke EU law before the national courts against a member state.
(Individual vs Member state)
Marshall v Southampton AHA 1986
