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Dive into the EU's structure, institutions, and legal system to grasp its inner workings and decision-making process. Explore the major EU institutions and key sources of law within the Union, including treaties, directives, and regulations. Enhance your knowledge with resources for tracking national implementation and accessing consolidated legislation. Navigate the co-decision procedure and discover tools like EUR-Lex for in-depth research on EU legislative enactments. Stay informed on EU policies and explore summaries of EU legislation for a comprehensive understanding.
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“The EU is fantastically exciting...in a really boring way.” Eddie Izzard, Dressed to Kill c1998 Ella Communications Ltd. Used with permission.
What is the EU? • a supra-national organization • composed of the European Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) • divided into 3 pillars (chiefly economic, foreign, and justice policy) • treaty-based
Major Council of Europe Institutions Major European Union Institutions Committee of Ministers (ministers of foreign affairs from each member state) Council of the European Union or Council of Ministers (member state representatives, usually foreign affairs ministers) European Commission (elected members) European Council (member state heads of state) Parliamentary Assembly (appointed or elected members) European Parliament (elected members) European Court of Human Rights European Court of Justice European Commission of Human Rights Economic & Social Committee Congress of Local & Regional Authorities Committee of the Regions
Sources of Law in the EU • treaties = primary legislation • directives and regulations = most important kinds of secondary legislation • legislative decisions = less important secondary legislation
Official Journal • “L” series –part of OJ where primary and secondary legislation appears • “C” series –drafts, notices
Major EU Institutions • European Commission • Council of the EU • European Parliament • European Court of Justice
Co-decision Procedure • primary procedure for EU legislative enactments • wide spectrum of policy areas • allows Parliament equal role with Council of Ministers • track progress at PreLex http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/apcnet.cfm?CL=en
EUR-Lex http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm
EUR-LEX searching • Allows searching by type of material (treaty, legislation, case-law) • Allows searching by type of document (e.g., for legislation- regulation, directive)
Tracking national implementation • N-Lex --EU database giving access to national laws • LexisNexis database:National Provisions Implementing Directives • EUR-LEX search --National Execution Measures • Search in national legislation databases, using number or title of directive • Search national legislation by subject • Don’t assume countries will abide by deadlines in the directives
N-LEX • New, doesn’t always work well • Use EuroVoc to find foreign terms
Directory of European Union consolidated legislation: Competition policy
Summaries of EU Legislation • Subject arrangement • Starting point • May be more intuitive for US lawyers • http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/index_en.htm
European Commission “Policies”:another finding approach • http://ec.europa.eu/policies/index_en.htm
EU Court of Justice • interpret treaties, other EU law • decisions bind only the parties • “no precedential effect” • can invalidate national legislation
EUR-LEX for cases • Better than CURIA search & goes back further (Curia, 1997; EUR-LEX, 1954) • Can restrict search to Adv.-Gen ops, judgments, orders, etc. • Remember to click radio button to search more than title