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The Structure of European Union Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2017

Pavlos Eleftheriadis
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Abstract

Is the general structure of EU law a matter determined by its own constitutional principles? Many assume that this must be the case, because this is what we regularly expect from any national order of constitutional law. A more careful look shows that the analogy does not work. There is no single set of constitutional principles that determines the application of EU law by the Member States. Each State has its own principles. This clear division of labour between EU and national law poses a serious theoretical problem to those presenting EU law as a legal system directly analogous to that of a constitutional order. This chapter argues that a more careful study shows that the structure of EU law is very much like the structure of international law: dualist, not monist. Nevertheless, the dualist structure of EU law does not in any sense reduce its authority or legitimacy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies , Volume 12 , 2010 , pp. 121 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Centre for European Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge 2010

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References

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10 Barents (2004), above n 9, 253.

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25 Ibid, 41.

26 Ibid, 44.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid, 15.

29 Case C-427/06 Birgit Bartsch v Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte (BSH) Altersfürsorge Gmbh, Opinion of A-G Sharpston, 22 May 2008, para 69.

30 Ibid, para 71, footnotes omitted.

31 Case 260/89 Elliniki Radiofonia Tileorasi-Anonimi Etairia (ERT-AE) v Dimotiki Etairia Pliroforissis [1993] ECR I-2925, para 42.

32 Case C-159/90 The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children Ireland Ltd v Stephen Grogan and others [1991] ECR I-04685.

33 von Bogdandy (2010), above n 16, 49.

34 Ibid, 52.

35 Case C-208/03 P Le Pen v European Parliament [2005] ECR I-6051.

36 Strictly speaking, under Decision 76/787/ECSC, EEC, Euratom relating to the Act concerning the election of the representatives of the Assembly by direct universal suffrage, [1976] OJ L278/1.

37 MacCormick, above n 14, 117.

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49 Ibid, 30.

50 Kant, above n 4, 488.

51 Ibid, 455.

52 von Bogdandy (2010), above n 16, 24.

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54 Wheeler v Office of the Prime Minster [2008] EWHC 1409 (Admin).

55 Ibid, at [58].