The Case Law On Horizontal Direct Effect Of Directives

The landmark decision involving direct effect occurred in 1963 in a case called Van Gend en Loos. In the case, a Dutch transport firm brought a complaint against Dutch customs for increasing the duty on a product imported from Germany. The firm argued that the Dutch authorities had breached a clause in the original EU treaty, which prohibited member states from introducing new duties in the common market. The Court agreed with the firm and declared that any “unconditionally worded treaty provision being self sufficient and legally complete” did not require

With regards to the claim that the European Parliament is too weak (the second of Weiler's standard version claims), Moravcsik (2002; 2003) emphasises the fact that during the last twenty years, the European Parliament is the institution which have experienced the most reforms, regarding its increase of powers, compare to the Council and the Commission. The latter argument is in fact accurate because ever since the Single European Act (1986), the European Parliament gains more and more power by reforms in every signed Treaty (Moravcsik, 2003, p. 7). Despite that, however, the Parliament is still considered to be weak compared to the other institutions, as it will be analysed later in the essay.

There are two types of direct effect: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal direct effect is between private individuals, where ‘if a provision of EU law has horizontal direct effect it can be enforced by an individual in a national court’ . Indirect effect is that where ‘obligation on national courts to interpret national law consistently with EU law’. It may be used where the directive is incapable of horizontal direct effect. State liability can overcome the limitations of direct and indirect effect, it ‘provides a right to damages where a Member State has breached EU law, causing loss to the applicant.’

This change is perhaps most evident when compared to Van Duyn v Home Office where it was established that Directives could have vertical direct effect. It was said that the usefulness of a directive ’would be weakened if individuals were prevented from relying on it before their national courts’, and that ecluding direct effect ‘would be incompatible with the binding effect attributed to a directive by article 189. Interestingly the language used in the case relating to weakness and incompatibility, seems to imply that this ruling on direct effect was made primarily solely as a means of making sure that their legal basis and legitimacy were not undermined by the omissions of the state rather than being a means for indiviuals to act positively to affirm their own

Judicial review may well be comprehended in the setting of two particular—yet parallel—lawful frameworks, common law and regular law. Furthermore by two unmistakable hypotheses on majority rules system and by means of a government ought to be put together, legislative matchless quality and detachment of forces. Regular law judges are viewable as wellsprings of law. These judges are also equipped for making new lawful standards and dismissing lawful guidelines that are no more legitimate. In the common law convention, judges are seen as the individuals who apply the law, with no energy to make or obliterate legitimate guidelines.

‘The jurisprudence of the Courts of Justice of the European Communities has, of course, established that the law of the communities, whether embodied in regulations or directives, must be given primacy, where it is applicable, over the domestic law of the member States.’ …‘

6. The European Court of Justice can overrule all member states’ courts on which issues?

This essay will review the difference types of competences and examine the effectiveness of the European Court of Justice in ensuring that EU institutions do not exceed the bounds of their competence in adopting legislation.

“…judicial and legislative developments *have+ made the *infringement+ procedure [come] of age- from a rarely used, opaque and policy-driven procedure, it has now become a common, fairly transparent and highly technical procedure.” Prete & Smuldres “The coming of age of infringement proceedings” (2010) 47 CMLR 9 Has the infringement procedure finally “come of age”? Critically outline the key features of the Article 258 TFEU procedure and relevant caselaw. Article 258 TFEU (Formerly Art 226 EC) empowers the European Commission to deliver a reasoned opinion to a member state when it considers that the state has failed to fulfil an obligation under the treaties. The action seeks to “fulfil an obligation under the EC Treaty” and to “obtain a

There are two types of direct effect: Horizontal, between private individuals and Vertical, between individuals and the state. This is fact that direct effect is not clearly stated in any of the EU Treaties. The Treaty articles has direct effect, such as, Van Gend En Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen principle of direct effect set out in this case and gave full authority to the EEC Treaty. This case provided a flurry of activity in the Court of Justice, which created many of judgements and brining about further integration, such as the primacy of EU law as stated in Costa v ENEL 1964 . This case is further endorsement that under Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), a court is responsible to refer cases that have reached the highest point of appeal in their own country, if there is a question of the application of EU Law. Costa had reached its highest point of

The doctrine has evolved in 3 stages. It must be noted that there are two circumstances where indirect effect will not come to the rescue of individuals granted entitlements by Directives. One is where there is no national measure to interpret and the other is where the national legislation contradicts the Directives. The first stage began in Von Colson. It was held that the national courts are required to interpret national law in light of the Directive in the requirement of EU law. The case offered two possibilities for individuals not protected by direct effect. It allowed them to invoke Directives even where the provision was not sufficiently justifiable to be direct effect. Litigants can also rely on this in cases against private parties. However, it applies only in rare circumstances where national laws were implementing Directives and a national provision was highly

Every law which is made by the parliament needs to be clearly defined and applied by judges in accordance with each case being dealt with. While deliberiating on choices about a case a judge should go by the precedent set by the higher courts concerning the circumstance and conditions applicable, as this additionally helps the one required for the situation as they are aware they will be dealt with alike and not arbitraily. The structure of the judicial precendent in the English legal system, with English law is established on the hypothesis of stare decisis. Stare decisis is the doctrine that rules principles of law on which a court rested a past verdict are defintive in all future cases, in which factors are similar. Judges need to follow these previous decisions which is a ‘binding precedent’.

This paper will assess the claim that supremacy of EU law is still an evolving and debatable concept. To do this, I have divided this paper into four sections. The first section will discuss the establishment of supremacy in EU law through ECJ case law. The second section will explore the vibrant debate surrounding constitutional pluralism that has arisen since the early 1990s. The third section will examine the debate and impact of the codification of primacy in the early 2000s. The fourth section will examine the extent to which the principle of sovereignty has been accepted in three EU Member States, namely, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Poland.

Enforcing the European Union legal system is diverse and done on multiple platforms; through not only actions taken against member states for breach of their obligations, but also, for example, through the use of direct effect1. Article 267 TFEU; an organism devised to practice private enforcement of EU law before national courts, has been critical to ensure uniform interpretation and application of EU law in member states. References for preliminary rulings occur when the national courts are presented with a question of EU law due to uncertainty of the provision. The national court will therefore ‘make a reference to the Court of Justice (COJ) to obtain a preliminary ruling on any point of EU law relevant to the proceedings’2. In

This essay will examine and evaluate the principle of supremacy of European Union (‘EU’) law since its ‘inception in the two fundamental authorities’ of Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie and Costa v ENEL analyzing how these cases established ‘an autonomous legal order which limits national sovereignty’ . Using Professor Weiler’s prism of ‘bi-dimensionalism’ this essay will examine supremacy through two viewpoints, how the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) has looked at the supremacy of EU law and how the national courts have viewed the supremacy. Whilst the EU may have one view, the second part of bi-dimensionalism is how the Member States have reviewed and interpreted the EU decisions reconciling them with