European Law notes fully updated for recent exams at Oxford and Cambridge. These notes cover all the LLB EU law cases and so are perfect for anyone doing an LLB in the UK or a great supplement for those doing LLBs abroad, whether that be in Ireland, Hong Kong or Malaysia (University of London).
These were the best European Law notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of LLB samples from outstanding law students with the highest resul...
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European Integration, Law-Making Institutions and Legal and Constitutional Limits on European Law-Making Notes
What is European integration and why is it important?
European integration refers to Member States integrating more in to the EU institutional model, ultimately losing national decision-making power at a national level in favour of shared decision-making, shared laws and shared political and legal systems.
This in turn has consequences for questions relating to the nature of the EU: does it merely manage the interdependence of Member States, or does it function as though it were itself a state.
The extent of integration changes over time as the Treaties are amended, this can be seen by looking at a timeline of EU integration:
Post-World War 1
The post WW1 approach to European integration was characterised by functionalism.
Functionalism refers to the idea that societies depend upon one another and thus there should be integration on all matters
Issues arise with this idea due to cultural differences
1919: Treaty of Versailles
This sought to eco nomically punish Germany for its actions in WW1, and Germany ultimately dropped in to an economic depression, causing a rise in political extremism
1920: League of Nations
Post WW1, the League of Nations was founded in an attempt to curb further instances of political extremism, through discussing big concepts such as peace
This was an example of functionalism – it tried to tie together the relevant states by getting them to agree on the big and important issues
This ultimately failed, because getting a large number of diverse cultures to agree on fundamental ideas such as peace is not going to be successful
Post- World War 2
After the obvious failures of the post-WW1 functionalist approach, European integration became premised on neofunctionalism.
Neofunctionalism advocates for co-operation on the easy issues, which ultimately leads to a spill-over on the difficult issues
Craig (2011) distinguishes between two forms of spill-over:
Functional spill-over – this occurs based on the interconnectedness of the economy: integration on one sphere will create pressure for integration in other areas
Political spill-over – this occurs where political pressure builds up in favour of further integration within the states which are involved
This takes place as interest groups realise where decision-making power is on certain issues, and thus focus their lobbying there on other issues.
1950: European Convention on Human Rights
1950s: Eurovision
People vent their anger in a song context and then they don’t do more dangerous things
This is neofunctionalism at work – engage in co-operation on harmless things (a song contest) and this will lead to co-operation on more dangerous things
1952: Treaty of Paris
This created the European Coal and Steel Community
1958: Treaty of Rome
This created the European Economic Community (EEC)
It was composed of the 6 original Member States as a response to the catastrophe of WW2
It has neofunctionalist groundings to the extent that economic integration was a means to a greater ends – it would avoid conflict and political instability
BUT: whilst prima facie it was about economic integration, it was always about more
The first line of the preamble to the Treaty speaks of an “ever closer Europe” and further speaks of the “peoples” (not people) of Europe, recognising the cultural differences between Member States
1987: Single European Act
This was the first formal revision of the Treaties
Introduced qualified majority voting
Member States could thus have laws imposed on them which they did not consent to
This meant that legitimacy no longer came from consent, it had to come from the principle of conferral.
It was primarily concerned with the completion of the internal market by the end of 1992
The primary goal was now to drive the process of economic integration deeper through the creation of a single market
1992: Maastricht Treaty
This created the Treaty on the European Union, which was concerned with the creating of an economic and monetary union
Conditions on economic union were inserted into all other treaties
It saw the expansion of EU competence into asylum, immigration, criminal justice and civil justice
This represents patterns of interdependence which are characteristic of the modern EU
Conferral was introduced – the EU shall only act within the power conferred on it
NOTE: all the negotiations at this Treaty was about subsidiarity, and conferral was an afterthought
1999: Amsterdam Treaty
2003: Nice Treaty
This was massively significant as it sought to establish a constitution
Whilst the changes were not particularly far reaching, the very language of introducing a constitution was significant
The desire here was to shift the focus of the EU to constitutional design and away from international institution
However, both the Dutch and French voted no in referendums and the Treaty died
2009: Treaty of Lisbon
This created the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
This was something of a recovery mission in light of the failure of the Nice Treaty
It was similar but not the same as the constitution envisaged in the Nice Treaty.
What are the different European law-making institutions?
The key institutions involved in EU law making are:
The European Commission
The European Council
The European Parliament
The Court of Justice of the European Union
NOTE: there is no traditional separation of powers in the sense of dividing up the executive, judicial and legislative functions as Montesquieu envisaged them
These institutions can perform a combination of the three functions
BUT: it is not accurate to say that there is no separation of powers – the extent and form of the separation is just different to a normal understanding
Davies (2006)...
Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our European Law Notes.
European Law notes fully updated for recent exams at Oxford and Cambridge. These notes cover all the LLB EU law cases and so are perfect for anyone doing an LLB in the UK or a great supplement for those doing LLBs abroad, whether that be in Ireland, Hong Kong or Malaysia (University of London).
These were the best European Law notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of LLB samples from outstanding law students with the highest resul...
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