Member State Enforcement of International Agreements and Access to Justice: Rethinking Direct Effect

This chapter discusses the key concepts within the EU legal order: supremacy, direct effect, indirect effect, and state liability. The doctrine of supremacy dictates that EU law takes precedence over conflicting provisions of national law. If a provision of EU law is directly effective, it gives rise to rights upon which individuals can rely directly in the national court. If an EU measure is not directly effective, a claimant may be able to rely on it through the application of indirect effect, which requires national law to be interpreted in accordance with relevant EU law. State liability gives rise to a right to damages where an individual has suffered loss because a Member State has failed to implement a directive or has committed other breaches of EU law.

Download Full-text

II.42 Direct Effect of International Agreements

Elgar Encyclopedia of International Economic Law ◽

10.4337/9781784713546.141 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 277-279

Author(s):

Matthias Oesch

Keyword(s):

Direct Effect ◽

International Agreements

Download Full-text

EU Acts and Member State Acts in the Negotiation, Conclusion, and Implementation of International Agreements

10.1093/oso/9780198817468.003.0008 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Alan Dashwood

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Member State ◽

External Action ◽

International Agreements ◽

International Agreement ◽

Legal Basis ◽

Treaty Of Lisbon ◽

Procedural Code ◽

The Eu

The new institutional balance resulting from the Treaty of Lisbon is being tested nowhere as sharply as in the field of the exercise of the EU’s powers of external action. There is a wealth of recent litigation clarifying aspects of the procedural code, now set out in Article 218 TFEU, which governs the negotiation, conclusion, and implementation of international agreements concluded on behalf of the EU. This chapter explores issues connected with the adoption of acts within the framework of Article 218, including the designation of the Union negotiator, the choice of legal basis for decisions on the conclusion of agreements and the enhanced role of the European Parliament in such decisions. Also discussed are certain controversial developments in the procedure that applies for determining the Union’s position in a decision-making body established under an international agreement, and other issues including the legality of so-called ‘hybrid acts’.

Download Full-text

Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780198717775.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Susanne K. Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Member State ◽

Political Science ◽

Direct Effect ◽

Case Law ◽

Political Order ◽

Individual Rights ◽

Member States ◽

Judicial Policymaking ◽

The Impact

An intergovernmental treaty that has specific aims for cooperation has a very different thrust than national constitutions, which are designed to allow political order and to safeguard individual rights. I argue that the literature in political science on the ECJ is too focused on showing how member states can influence the Court. It overlooks the supranational outcomes that ensue when the Treaty contains policy prescriptions, while being constitutionalized through supremacy and direct effect. Through its case law, the Court provides additions to the Treaty. To demonstrate the importance of judicial policymaking through case-law development and codification, three steps are fundamental to the book’s argument. First, we have to understand both case-law development and the impact of the Court. Secondly and thirdly, we must ask how the ECJ’s case law may make a difference to policymaking at both the European and member-state levels.

Download Full-text

9. EU law

Constitutional and Administrative Law ◽

10.1093/he/9780198847120.003.0009 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 202-225

Author(s):

Neil Parpworth

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Member State ◽

Direct Effect ◽

Maastricht Treaty ◽

Eu Law ◽

The European Union ◽

The Uk ◽

Treaty Of Amsterdam ◽

The Relationship ◽

Direct Applicability

This chapter discusses the primary and secondary laws of the European Union (EU). Treaties are the primary law of the EU. In addition to the treaties that originally established the three European Communities, a number of other treaties have subsequently been made. These include the Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty), the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Treaty of Nice, and the Lisbon Treaty, all of which have made important amendments to the foundation treaties. Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) confers legislative power on the Union’s institutions to make secondary legislation in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty. This secondary legislation may take different forms: regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations, and opinions. The chapter also discusses the concepts of direct applicability and direct effect, and the relationship between EU law and the English courts, and concludes by considering the likely enduring impact of EU law even after the UK has ceased to be a member state.

Download Full-text