Flaminio Costa v ENEL [1964] ECR 585 ECJ

• This case was concerned with the nationalisation of the Italian electricity industry, whose bills Costa refused to pay in protest (he had a stake in the private energy firm) since he said its creation breached EU law.

• The Italian Constitutional court said that subscription to the EC was an ordinary law, subject, like any other, to repeal.

ECJ

• The ECJ ruling overturned this, saying:

  1. That upon the EEC Treaty coming into force a “new legal order” came to exist, which caused EC law to enter into domestic law and that domestic courts are “bound to enforce” it, and

  2. That “transfer from [member states’] domestic legal systems to a Community legal system” meant a loss of sovereignty and hence any subsequent act made in breach of EC law would be ineffective, since EC law would prevail.

• This ruling established that member states couldn’t deviate from EC treaties without prior permission.

• It also established that national high courts couldn’t determine incompatibility of national and EC law without consulting ECJ.