EUROPEAN UNION

European Union

European Union

In a hearing before it, the UK General Medical Council is requested by Alan's lawyers to make an Article 267 TFEU reference to the ECJ in relation to Alan's proposed transfer of his pension rights under EU law for his previous work as a medic in France and Germany.

General principles of law are found in every legal system in Europe. The European Court of Justice has induced them into the legal order to supplement the written sources of law, the treaties, and is used as an aid of interpretation. This is because the court can't rule on all the issues through applying laws, and treaties from the past. Therefore, over the years the rules of Community Law were allowed to be derived from general principles of law in addition to treaties and EC legislation. On the one hand the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will try to find a reference for the general principles in the laws and sources that they already have obtained, and apply the general principle in its own right. On the other hand the EJC will, when referring to municipal law, look for a principles of law, that are found in most member states, regardless of the fact, that there might be a minority state, that does not apply these principles (Washam & Mountfield, 1999).

The notion of fundamental human rights was introduced into Community law by the ECJ decision in Stauder v. City of Ulm. The Court was under pressure to introduce this fundamental concept because the supremacy of Community law was being questioned in Germany. German lawyers were in doubt whether Community law prevailed over their own Constitution, particularly in the field of fundamental human rights. They were contrary to the application of a Community rule which was contrary to fundamental human rights as protected under their Constitution. It was imperative for the ECJ to bring to terms any possible schism and, consequently, it declared the existence of a general principle of fundamental human rights in Community law and set forth to itself annul any EC rule which went contrary to such principle (Slapper and Delly, 1999).

Two UK companies are in a contractual dispute. Both are companies that import steel into the UK from the EU. In court, one of the parties, Baxter plc, requests a preliminary ruling on the legality of certain UK charges on the import of steel to the UK in the light of EU provisions. The other party agrees with Baxter to this request for a ruling which, if found in their favour, would benefit them both. Baxter claims a ruling is necessary to resolve the dispute.

General principles of law can be found in all legal systems. Their function is clearly to assist where written sources of law have failed to provide an answer, since the latter can hardly cover all questions which come before the Courts. The development of general principles has, within the Member States of the European Community, taken place over a number of ...