The Sources, Objectives and Principles of EC Law

Abstract

The Sources of EC law have roughly been divided into the categories of primary law,1 secondary law and case law. The emphasis is on the EC and EU Treaties, binding secondary legislation and the preliminary rulings of the ECJ. The Treaty establishing the European Community (EC Treaty), as amended, among others, by the Single European Act (SEA),2 the Treaty on European Union (the EU Treaty),3 the Amsterdam Treaty4 or most recently by the Nice Treaty,5 is the most important source of primary law. The Treaties can from the practical point of view be referred to as the constitution of the Community, because their provisions take priority over all other sources of law within the EC, they define the limits of the EC’s competence to act and provide the legal basis for secondary legislation. The EC Treaty sets out the basic objectives, principles, foundations and policy of the Community and the rules which govern its institutions. It establishes a European Community with legal personality.6 The protocols annexed to the EC Treaty form an integral part of it.7 The EC Treaty is essentially a framework Treaty (traité cadre), which leaves its institutions, namely the Commission and Council with increased consultation and sometimes through co-decisions with the European Parliament, to fill in the gaps by means of secondary legislation.8 KeywordsMember StateGeneral PrincipleNational CourtLegal CertaintyMaastricht TreatyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.