"European Community Law derives from a range of sources" - Describe, giving examples, the various sources of European Community Law.

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Assignment on European Law

  1. “European Community Law derives from a range of sources”

Describe, giving examples, the various sources of European Community Law

The European Community originated from treaties, which led to the development of three communes; the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Committee (Euratom).  Treaties are the primary sources of the European Community Law.

The Treaties are seen as the foundation of the European Communities, as it gives authority and imposes boundaries on the power of the institutions. These agreements enforce compulsory obligations on the member states and give particular regard to the superiority of such Treaties. In effect, the Treaties shape part of the national law for each of the member states, who are under duty to enact European Community legislation.

 

After World War II, the Foreign Minister of France, Robert Schuman invited Germany and other member states, namely Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and discussed the idea of congregating steel and coal resources.  The main purpose of this agreement was to improve employment opportunities and raise standards of living in each member state.  On the 18th of April 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed, which led to the development of the European Coal and Steel Community.

The European Economic Community (EEC) was established through the Treaty of Rome 1957 and was informally regarded as the ‘Common Market’. The objective was to create relaxed trading within the member states by allowing ‘free movement of goods’.  It also worked towards free movement of labour and the development of joint policies on social welfare, agriculture, and transport. The EEC is considered to be the most important out of all three.  In 1965, the Merger Treaty was signed, which combined all three communes under one administration.  In order to bring about a genuine and unified market within the member states, the Treaty of Rome was amended by the  1986. As a result of signing the Single European Act, the European Union assigned part of their ‘decision-making’ powers to the European Institutions. On the 1st of November 1993, the Maastricht Treaty was approved by member states, after which the European Economic Community became known as the European Community.  The European Atomic Energy Community was also established by the Treaty of Rome.

The European Union also came into existence on 1st of November 1993.  It is generally, but wrongly assumed that the European Union has out dated the European Community, whereas in fact they are two independent bodies.  The EU is made up of three pillars; the first pillar includes the EC while the other two pillars of the EU are Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Justice and Home Affairs (JHA).

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The Treaty of Rome was modified by following treaties and was re-named through the Treaty of European Union as the “Treaty establishing the European Community”. The Treaty is divided into 200 segments, which are referred to as ‘Articles’.  These Articles set down the structure of European Community law in areas such as; migration of workers and free trade.

The structures, which are formed by the Articles, are filled out by a great amount of secondary legislation, which describe how the basic principles in the Articles will work in practice. The most significant sources of secondary legislation are; regulations and ...

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