Showing papers in "Common Market Law Review in 2001"

A Charter of Rights, Freedoms and Principles

Abstract: At the Nice European Summit in December 2000, the three organs of the Union – the Council (acting for the Member States), the Commission and the European Parliament – solemnly proclaimed the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. This first comprehensive statement in the human rights field was the result of a hectic 9 month negotiating programme in which I was privileged to participate as the UK Government representative. In this article, I would like to recount something of the history of those negotiations and some personal reflections on the Charter to which we helped give birth.1 My paper draws its title from the final sentence of the Charter’s preamble: “The Union therefore recognizes the rights, freedoms and principles set out hereafter.” These words, and the Conclusions of the June 1999 Cologne European Council, which set up the work of the Charter, are the best basis for considering the nature of the European Union’s new Charter of fundamental rights. Reaction to the Charter has been a heady mixture of misunderstanding, hostility and unrealistic expectations. I would like to start therefore with the historical background to the Charter and its place in the historical development of the European Union since it helps me to put it in its proper context.

The problem of quality in EU legislation: What on earth is really wrong?

Abstract: Despite the recent qualms about the obviously bad quality of EU legislative texts, in the past the quality and style of legislation at the EU level was treated as an irrelevance by EU legislators and legal commentators alike. This was mainly due to the fact that, especially with reference to Directives, the main aim of EU drafters has been to achieve the actual passing of new legislation agreed by all or most of the fifteen Member States whose difference in interests and legal systems rendered the procedure of passing legislation at the EU level a rather lengthy and painful sequence of sensitive compromises. After all, EU law has often been considered a droit diplomatique. In this already difficult process concerns on the quality or style of the text produced was viewed, and possibly not without basis, a mere luxury. However, a combination of two events changed this attitude. First, the introduction of detailed legislation on an increasing number of fields of law created extensive rights and obligations addressed and enjoyed by individuals. EU natural and legal persons are increasingly being called to comply with complex EU legislation affecting a huge chunk of their lives and ranging from equal employment rights to sex equality and from the determination of technical standards for products sold within the EU to the accountancy obligations of EU companies. Second, the introduction and further development of the direct effects principle signified that most EU legislative texts -even Directivesare applicable within Member States even if they are not transposed into national law. This, by definition, demanded EU legislative texts which can be easily interpreted and smoothly applied by national courts even when the EU text is the only source of relevant law available to national judges. Moreover, while this was taking place at the individual level, Member States were finding the task of transposing the large number of Single Market measures into their national laws rather difficult to cope with. At the same time, as Jean-Claude Piris, the Director-General of the Council Legal Service, the institutions themselves found the task of passing accessible

An Overview of Recent Legal Developments at Community Level in Relation to Third Country Nationals Resident Within the European Union, with Particular Reference to the Case Law of the European Court of Justice

Abstract: n/a

Judicial Reform and the Treaty of Nice

Abstract: The judicial system of the European Union has always been a central focus in any study of the process of European integration. However, until comparatively recently, most attention has been paid to the substantive content of the cases decided by the European courts, whether in particular fields of law or as a more general reflection of the Courts' own perception of their role and its limitations. Today, few would dissent from the proposition that a serious reform of the very system itself is necessary, if the Union's desire to become a first-rate world economy is to be matched by a first-rate administration of justice. After slow beginnings, 'judicial architecture' has become a fashionable field of study and now even the Inter-governmental Conference at Nice has got in on the act. The purpose of this article is to examine the changes that will be brought about on the ratification of the Treaty of Nice and to speculate on the likely impact of these new provisions, as well as to suggest some areas where further reform may still be necessary.

Joined Cases C-147/97 and C-148/97, Deutsche Post AG v. Gesellschaft für Zahlungssysteme mbH (GZS) and Citicorp Kartenservice GmbH CKG

Abstract: Competition — Public undertakings or undertakings to which States grant special or exclusive rights — Undertakings with responsibility for the management of services of general economic interest — Postal service — Imposition of internal taxes in order to offset the costs of processing and delivering incoming trans-border mail posted in large quantities with the postal services of another Member State — Whether compatible with the rules of the Treaty — Limits (EC Treaty, Art. 59 (now, after amendment, Art. 49 EC) and Arts 86 and 90(1) (now Arts 82 EC and 86(1) EC»