Supranational Law: Appearance, Content and Action

Abstract

Review. Some regional associations of states formed after the Second World War in order to provide economic, social and political integration of states of a certain region of the world (particularly, in Europe) have acquired the features of an organization that is political in its nature. Such associations have germs or even elements of particular public authority with regard to member-states and sometimes (by means of supranational law), to some extent, with regard to physical and legal entities of member-states. The high degree of centralization characterizes the European Union, the creation of which was declared in 1992 after a long period of integration development. Using the methodology of political science, constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, the author concludes that the EU has become a new particular form of a public-law (governmental) institution, namely, international regional public-law (governmental) institution. The organs of the EU (special type of EU bodies) make supranational law that is binding not only for member-states. It acts directly (without ratification or implementation) in member-states, it applies to their physical and legal entities and has supremacy over its national (domestic) law. However, we need to take into account that the EU law acts in member-states and is binding on physical and legal entities only within the limits of the sovereign rights and state powers that are assigned to the EU in accordance with constitutions of member-states. Such limits are determined in constitutions of the EU member-states when they join the EU in the most general form (acts of the EU must comply with human rights, democratic, legal, social state, etc.) and in an ambiguous way (sometimes the state sovereignty is said to be limited), but the principle of limitation of powers of a regional organization and the scope of applicability of supranational law is always determined in both member-states' constitutions and in constitutional documents of a regional organization.