Moscow State Academy of Law
The Chair of the European Union Law, The Centre of the European Union Law

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S.Yu.Kashkin, P.A.Kalinichenko

European Union Law

The European Union Law is an unique legal phenomenon developed in the process of European integration within the framework of the European Communities and the European Union; a result of the implementation of the supranational authority of the European institutions. The European Union law is a specific legal system having independent sources and principles that developed at the border-line of international law and domestic law of the EU’s Member States. The authonomy of the European Union law is affirmed by a case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Communities.

The term “European Union law” has been used since the beginning of 1990s after the emergence of the European Union. Previously, this legal system was called “European Communities law” or “European Community law’ though these concepts are not equivalent to the concept of “European Union law’. Some scholars consider “European Union law” a narrower synonym of a wider “European law” concept.

The European Community law (the EC law) is the core of the European Union law and the European communities law. The EC law is based on its legal princeples – the most general propositions determining meaning, contents, implementation, and development of all other norms of the EC law.

Principles of the EC law are divided into functional and general ones. The functional principles include the principle of the supremacy of the EC law and the principle of direct effect of the EC law. The principle of supremacy means the priority of the norms of the EC law over the norms of the national legislation of Member States, i.e., the latter should not contradict the former. The principle of direct effect means the direct application of the EC law on the territories of Member States that the norms of the Community law are implanted into national legal systems without any transformation. These principles have been developed in judicial legislation by the Court of Justice in interpreting the constituent documents of the organization. General principles of the EC law include the principle of the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the principle of proportionality, the principle of nondiscrimination, the principle of subsidiarity, and a number of procedural principles.

The European Union law has an original system of legal sources that form a complete system of sources with hierarchy of acts typical for such systems. The system of sources of European Union law includes two groups of acts – acts of the primary law and acts of the secondary law.

Acts of the primary law include all constituent treaties of the European Union. By their legal nature primary law acts are international agreements. Norms of primary law acts are supreme relating to all other norms of the European Union that contain secondary law acts.

A specific feature of the European Union is that it was founded on the base of several international treaties of constituent character. First is the Rome Treaty establishing the EC 1957, and then the Rome Treaty establishing the Euratom 1957, and the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union 1992. These are the so-called “constituent treaties in the narrow sence”. These treaties give the European Union its “constituent” character. “Constituent treaties in the broad sense” usually include all acts listed above and also international treaties with amendments and supplements: the First Budgetary Treaty 1970; the Second Budgetary Treaty 1975; the Single European Act 1986; the Amsterdam Treaty 1997. Successive amendments to constituent treaties of the Union were approved at the Conference of Member States in Nice (December 2000) – the Nice Treaty 2001. These amendments were finally formulated on February 26, 2001.

Secondary law acts include acts issued by institutions of the Union and also all other acts adopted on the basis of constituent treaties. When defining the sources of the secondary law the continental and Anglo-Saxon legal system collide over the issue of the recognition of jurisdictional acts as sources; there is also the influence of the concept of sources in international law.

The secondary law of the European Union has various categories of lawmaking forms as sources. The first category of secondary law acts is statutory acts, including regulations, directives, and framework decisions. The second category is individual acts, including decisions. The third category is recommendatory acts, including recommendations and opinions. The next category of secondary law acts is acts on coordination of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), as well as on of the Police and Judicial Cooperation in criminal matters (PJC). This category of acts includes common position, joint actions, and common strategy. Secondary law sources include sui generis acts – the "informal" legal acts adopted by bodies of the Union (usually decisions or resolutions of a concrete body) that have not been stipulated by constituent treaties. The last category of secondary law sources can be defined as international acts which include: decisions and acts of representatives of Member States conventions between Member States made on the basis of constituent treaties; international agreements of the European Union.

A separate category of sources is made out of jurisdiction acts – case-law of the Court of Justice.

The specifics of the European Union also predetermines structural features of the European Union law. The structure of the European Union law is made out of several elements interconnected with each other. Elements of this structure include constituent treaties of the European Union, provisions on human rights and freedoms, norms adopted according to the CFSP, norms adopted according to the PJC, the European Communities law.

Currently, the European Union law is characterized by codification and enforcement. The Laaken declaration of 2001, adopted at the Summit of Heads of the States/Goverments within the framework of the European Council, emphasizes the necessity of reform of sources of the primary and secondary law of the European Union, simplification of legal forms and establishment of the full value Constitution of the European Union on the basis of constituent treaties of the European Union and the Charter of the European Union on the fundamental rights 2000.

Published: “Global Studies: Encyclopedia” – M. Raduga Publishers. 2003. P. 145–146.