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LW 302: Law of EU
Week 2: THE EU AND ITS INSTITUTIONS
What is the EU?
● Court of Justice of the European Union:
○ 156. …., unlike any other Contracting Party, the EU is, under international
law, precluded by its very nature from being considered a State.
○ 158. The fact that the EU has a new kind of legal order, the nature of
which is peculiar to the EU, its own constitutional framework and
founding principles, a particularly sophisticated institutional structure
and a full set of legal rules to ensure its operation, has consequences as
regards the procedure for and conditions of accession to the ECHR.
In legal terms, the EU is:
● 1. A new legal order for the benefit of which the member states have willingly
limited their sovereign rights
● 2. Created by treaties negotiated and agreed between its member states on the
basis of unanimity
● 3. Wherein Member States have undertaken certain obligations while they
conferred specifically defined powers on the EU within the Treaty
● 4. To achieve the objectives set forth in the treaties
● Article 3 TEU:
○ The Union aims to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its
peoples”. (Legal, economic, social and political dimensions integral to
that).
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Member States (all 27) set the aims and conferred the powers to the EU to achieve
them
Origins and Evolution
, 3
Schumann Declaration 1950
● The main piece of text that gave birth to the EU
● 5 years after WW2
The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
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The Treaties that made the EU
● Treaty of Nice aka Treaty of Rome
● Origins of Brexit
● When the UK govt opted out of immigration controls and restrictions → this
meant that eastern European countries could not migrate to neighbouring countries
for 10 years except to the UK.
LW 302: Law of EU
Week 2: THE EU AND ITS INSTITUTIONS
What is the EU?
● Court of Justice of the European Union:
○ 156. …., unlike any other Contracting Party, the EU is, under international
law, precluded by its very nature from being considered a State.
○ 158. The fact that the EU has a new kind of legal order, the nature of
which is peculiar to the EU, its own constitutional framework and
founding principles, a particularly sophisticated institutional structure
and a full set of legal rules to ensure its operation, has consequences as
regards the procedure for and conditions of accession to the ECHR.
In legal terms, the EU is:
● 1. A new legal order for the benefit of which the member states have willingly
limited their sovereign rights
● 2. Created by treaties negotiated and agreed between its member states on the
basis of unanimity
● 3. Wherein Member States have undertaken certain obligations while they
conferred specifically defined powers on the EU within the Treaty
● 4. To achieve the objectives set forth in the treaties
● Article 3 TEU:
○ The Union aims to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its
peoples”. (Legal, economic, social and political dimensions integral to
that).
, 2
Member States (all 27) set the aims and conferred the powers to the EU to achieve
them
Origins and Evolution
, 3
Schumann Declaration 1950
● The main piece of text that gave birth to the EU
● 5 years after WW2
The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
, 4
The Treaties that made the EU
● Treaty of Nice aka Treaty of Rome
● Origins of Brexit
● When the UK govt opted out of immigration controls and restrictions → this
meant that eastern European countries could not migrate to neighbouring countries
for 10 years except to the UK.
