The court of justice of EU had started the legal nature of European communities providing that they

constitute a new legal order of international law having subjects not only the member states but also
their nationals.

a summary of 1 page of each case

1. van gend en loos case no 26/1962

2. costa v enel case no 6/1964

In the second case, in the same way (costa v enel) the court of justice has developed its reasoning
providing that the community law constitutes a new legal order which became an integral part of
international legal systems of the member states and the national courts of law of member states are
obliged to apply.

The EU law is characterized by autonomy because it constitutes a legal system which is different for the
international legal order and the national legal system of the member states. In the same time the EU la
must not be conceived as an external system of law because it is an integral part of the national legal
system of each member state. As a consequence the EU law must be applied on the territory of each
national state as its own national law. The EU law includes mainly the following categories of legal rules:

1. all legal rules included in the founding treaties (Paris and Rome), the amending treaties (single
europ act, maastricht, amsterdam, niece) and the treaties of accession of new member states
2. all legal rules contained in the acts adopted by the European institutions within the application
of the treaties

In a wider meaning the EU law also includes the written or unwritten rules that are applicable in the
European legal system such as the general principles of law belonging to the legal system of the member
states the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the rules related to the external
relations of the EU, the rules included in the internal regulations of the European institutions and so on.

Classification of European legal rules

European legal rules may be classified in accordance to the following two criteria:

1. according to its sources the EU law may be divided as follows:

a) primary law which had been created by the founding Treaties, the amending treaties and
the treaties of accession of the new member states
b) secondary law which is a result of the activity of the European institution in the application
of the treaties
2. according to its content the EU law may be divided in 2 categories:
a) institutional law which deals with the organization, the functioning and the powers of the
European institutions, the relations between the institutions, the financial resources and the
external relations of the EU
 b) material law which deals with the specific rules that must be applied in different fields of
economic activity provided by the treaties

The principles/characters of EU law

The EU law is an integral part of the national legal systems of the member states. Therefore, EU law is
based on the following three principles:

1. the direct applicability of EU law

It means that the EU legal rules are directly and automatically applicable in the national legal systems of
the member states. Therefore the legal provisions of the EU law take effect in the legal systems of the
member states as soon as they enter into force without the need to be incorporated into the national
law by means of national normative acts. As a consequence the national courts of law are obliged to
apply the European legal provisions into the internal legal order of member states. Concerning the direct
applicability and the method of incorporating international provisions into the national law there are
two main approaches in the national legal system of the member states as follows:

a) monist approach provides that any international treaty takes effect into the national legal
system as soon as the treaty is ratified; this approach is applied into the national legal system of
several member states such as Romania, France, or the Netherlands
b) dualist approach which provides that any international treaty cannot take effect into the
national legal systems until its incorporation by national legal provisions; this approach applies
in Germany, Italy, Belgium or UK

Despite these differences between member states concerning the method of incorporation of
international legal provisions the EU law provides the monist approach. As a consequence the European
legal provisions become a part of the national legal system of each member state from the moment of
their entering into force.

2. the direct effect of EU law

3. the supremacy of EU law