EUROPEAN UNION LAW

European Union Law



European Union Law

Introduction

The principle of conferral governs the limit of Union competences. The subsidiary and proportionality principle groverns the exercise of Union competencies. It is conferred by the member states in the treaties that the union should act within the limits in order to achieve the set objectives. Moreover, the subsidiary principle, which do not fall within the exclusive competence, the union should perform as the objectives opf proposed actions. In accordance with the application protocol, the principle of subsidiary shall be applied by the union institutions of the principles of subsidiary and proportionality. Compliance shall be made ensure by the national parliaments in accordance with the procedure laid down in that protocol with the principle of subsidiary.

Discussion

Medieval scholars like Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica) and John of Salisbury (Policratius) regarded the origin of natural law as divine and the power of the king as limited by natural law and the church. Although the study of the classic texts influenced constitutional culture in England, the distinctions between politics and norms, state and society, and law and policy were not appreciated by those who viewed the business of governing as a form of practical knowledge. In the political discourses of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, usage of the term constitution was still rare. In Republica Anglorum (1584) Sir Thomas Smith understood Aristotle's policies as policy or government rather than constitution. In 1602 William Fulbecke granted the state (the body policy) a constitution by analogy with the human body, and in 1606 Edward Forset systematically analyzed the relationship between nature and state, medicine and politics, and doctor and statesman.

Some judges have recently questioned whether, in the continuing absence of a single constitutional document, the judges might of their own initiative begin to review legislation by Parliament, based on the need to respect fundamental human rights. In the decision of Jackson (2005) UKHL 56, the law lords (the most senior judges) did not accept that the UK Parliament acting today could, with impunity, violate the fundamental precepts of the rule of law.

Membership in the European Union is not easily reconciled with parliamentary sovereignty. The orthodox view is that the European Community legal order is inconsistent with the sovereignty of Parliament. The twin pillars of community law (the doctrines of direct effect and supremacy) simply cannot be reconciled with the tenets of parliamentary sovereignty. However, a modern alternative viewpoint claims that Parliament is still the highest law-making authority within the national legal order and that it legislates in areas in which it is competent to legislate. This view also stresses that there is an additional European legal order that produces legal effects in the United Kingdom as well. In other words, an area exists where the United Kingdom, as a matter of law and policy, has delegated law-making powers to the European Union institutions. As a result, so long as the United Kingdom is a member of the European Union, there will be instances (which are controlled ...