There are two forms of EU legislation: primary legislation embodied in the treaties, and secondary legislation in the form of Regulations, Directives and Decisions which are used to implement the policies set out in the treaties.Under Article 226 EC Treaty proceedings will be initiated against Member States by the Commission if they fail to comply with the Community Law obligations

There are three possible means in which Bob and Jim can enforce there rights under Community law. These are through direct effect, indirect effect and state liability. Rights can be enforced against different parties through different principles.

Direct effect is a basic principle of Community law. Community law not only imposes obligations on individuals but also confers on them rights which they can invoke before national and Community courts.

Direct effect differs from direct applicability. Direct applicability means that EC law becomes part of the national law without intervention of Parliament. As a result, Community law is automatically incorporated into national law. Although by virtue of Article 249 only Regulations are specified to be directly applicable, the ECJ has subsequently held that, in certain circumstances, Treaty provisions, Decisions, and Directives can have direct vertical effect as well.

Directives are not directly applicable in the UK there is a requirement that member states change their national laws within a stated period of time in order to give effect to the directive. This is because the UK operates a 'dualist' legal system as opposed to a monist legal system. A dualist system emphasizes the difference between national and international law, and requires the translation of international law into national law whereas a monist legal system International law does not need to be translated into national law. In the UK. Directives can be implemented either by statute or by delegated legislation under the European Communities Act 1972.

The decision in the case of Van Gend en Loos created the concept of direct effect, namely the creation of rights for individuals under Community Law. Not all treaty articles are capable of direct effect, but the decision in Van Gend determined that Article 12 (now 25) was ideally suited to create rights for individuals. The case was also important in establishing the Van Gend Criteria for determining when a particular provision should be directly effective. The criteria outlines that such a provision should be precise, clear and unconditional and that it need not call for additional measures, either national or Community.

Join now!

In the case of Van Duyn v Home Office the ECJ held that a Directive could produce vertical direct effects so long as it met the Van Gend Criteria.

In this case the Directive 2003/32/EC (fictious) was required to be implemented by the member states by September 2004 and the UK failed to implement it before the stated date therefore it does not meet the Van Gend Criteria because there is a need for “implementing measures to be taken by the member state”  It was further held in the case of Publico Ministerio v Ratti that an unimplemented Directive ...

This is a preview of the whole essay