European Union law

Abstract

This chapter aims to illustrate why European Union (EU) law, in all its complexity and with all its limitations, is one of the greatest achievements of European integration, presents a few major EU rules and characteristics. Legal orders can be organised on three levels: international law, national law and, in between, EU law as supranational law. Several elements of the EU legal system suggest that national sovereignty is strong and remains essential for the functioning of the Union. The origin of the EU’s complexity lies in its intrinsic nature. The tertium genus approach allows one to define EU law as a set of rules that have developed in parallel to, but integrated with, national law. Like in Italy, lately the debate has developed around criminal law and fundamental rights. EU law is halfway between two traditional legal orders. It is close to a federal system, without however establishing a federal state.