Doctrine of Supremacy of European Union: Challenges in its Development

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Introduction:
Doctrine of supremacy of European Union was advanced by the European Court of Justice, and
as per this doctrine, whenever there is any dispute between the European law and law of member
states, then law of EU will always dominant. As stated by the European community law, if any
conflict arises in the nationwide law of member states and law developed by European Union
then European law will supersede1.
This paper mainly discuss the statement “principle of Supremacy is firmly established in the
(now) EU legal order, it was a novel concept and has faced challenges in its development”. This
essay demonstrates the knowledge related to the application of the constitutional law of EU
which also includes the association between the Court of Justice and national courts concerning
Supremacy. At the end, brief conclusion is stated which concludes the important facts of this
essay.
Discussion:
While making and declaring the public law, The European Court of Justice (ECJ) shows very
important part. There are number of important doctrines established by EC law which are not
stated under the treaties or in any secondary legislation, but they are established by different case
laws decided by the European Courts2.
No regulations are defined under the Treaty on European Union (TEU) which defines the direct
provision in context of resolving the problem of the supremacy between the civic and the
different nationwide laws of the member states. Article 10 of TEU is the only provision which
addresses the issue related to the supremacy, and make member states obliged to accept the
relevant provisions in context of ensuring that the responsibilities of the treaty are pragmatic
together accompanied with extra obligations to restrict from all the acts which can raise any
conflict in the achievement of the objectives stated by treaty. It is clear that, doctrine of
supremacy states that EU labour law takes precedence over the domestic labour law.
The formation of the new lawful order of the EU law and its supremacy clearly reflects that EU
institutions can form the rules which directly influence the service and industrial relations, even
though these rules are opposed by some member states, but maximum member states votes in
favour of the rules. After the adaptation, these rules must be enforced by the member states in
their national courts, even though these rules override the provisions stated under the domestic
law of the member states. It must be noted that, national constitutional courts have also accepted
1 Bruges group, Why EU law has supremacy over national law and why attempts at reform will never succeed
(2016), < https://www.brugesgroup.com/images/papers/eulawsupremeovernationallaw.pdf>, accessed on 25th
may 2018.
2 AISI Zhang, Supremacy of EU Law: A Comparative Analysis (2014), < http://nicholasnicoletti.com/EU
%20Conference/Paper%20Submissions/Zhang,%20Aisi%20-%20Supremacy%20of%20EU%20Law.pdf>, accessed on
25th may 2018.

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the values related to the supremacy of the EU law. At the similar time, these principles imagined
the boundary to the fundamental principles of the national constitution of the each member state3.
The first and most important case in which statement of the components of the EU law was made
by the Court was the case of Van Gend en Loos v. Netherlands (1963) Case 26/62 (1963) ECR
1, (1963) CMLR 1054. This case mainly deals with the principles of the straight result of the EC
Treaty provisions and the grade to which individual can depend on these terms in context of
challenge the provisions of the national law. In this case, it was clearly stated by the ECJ that
new legal order in international law was framed by the community for whose benefits the
independent rights of the states have been limited. Court further stated that, new legal process
was required by the new legal order in context of defensive the new legal advantage created by
the new legal order.
Doctrine of supremacy of the EU law had no formal ground in the European Community Treaty,
but the provisions of this doctrine is developed by the ECJ in context of its perception related to
the new legal order. Even in case important concept of the judgment deals with the concept of
the direct applicability and also the direct impact, but still it is meaningful to refer it as the new
legal order. ECJ stated that the EU was not only the normal international law authority, but this
authority holds the more independent status and also the great impact on the national law of the
member states.
In case law Costa v ENEL Case 6/64 (1964) ECR 585; (1964) CMLR 4255, the ECJ insistently
frame the doctrine related to the supremacy in EU law over the national law of the member
states. It must be noted that, there were almost two important assumptions in terms of the
association between the community law and national law in this case. Sovereign rights were
transferred by the member states to the community, and it was not possible to reverse this
process through the subsequent unilateral measures which were not suited to the concept of the
community. In other words, it can be said that independence of the member states to take action
as they wish has been restricted by the validity of their membership.
In case law Simmenthal SPA (1978) Case 106/77 (1978) ECR 629; (1978) 3 CMLR 2636, ECJ
stated that the supremacy of the European Union law affects the present as well as future laws. In
this case, Simmenthal was ordered to pay the fees for public health inspection while importing
some beef from France to Italy. Regulation was stated under the Italian law passed in 1970, and
at that time it was contrary to the European Community Treaty and two Community regulations
passed in 1968 respectively. In this case, two significant facts were introduced by the Italian
authorities at the time when case initiates. First observation states that, law of Italy must prevail
because it was approved after the two EU regulations. Second Italian law must be implemented
by the Italian courts until it had been professed unconstitutional by the constitutional court of
3 EUROfound, Supremacy of EU law (4th May 2011), <
https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/supremacy-of-eu-law>,
accessed on 25th May 2018.
4 Van Gend en Loos v. Netherlands (1963) Case 26/62 (1963) ECR 1, (1963) CMLR 105.
5 Costa v ENEL Case 6/64 (1964) ECR 585; (1964) CMLR 425.
6 Simmenthal SPA (1978) Case 106/77 (1978) ECR 629; (1978) 3 CMLR 263.