Analyzing Methods for Measuring European Union Law Effectiveness

This essay provides an in-depth examination of the methods used to measure the effectiveness of European Union law. It begins with an introduction to the EU's legal framework, emphasizing its treaties and the principle of supremacy. The main body of the essay explores key factors, including the distribution of competencies between the EU and its member states, the role of the EU's legal system in ensuring compliance, and the significance of the Court of Justice of the EU in interpreting and applying EU law. The essay also analyzes the different forms of legal acts (regulations, directives, and decisions) and their impact. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the supremacy of EU law and its influence on member states. The essay highlights the importance of these factors in ensuring the effective functioning of the EU's legal system and its impact on member states.

The European Union
Law

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The law is referred to as a system of different rules that is recognized in the particular
community and country as the regulation of action of its members and its enforceability is
ensured by imposing penalties. Every country or an area has its own set of laws which are
required to be followed by the people who reside therein. The European Union is the economical
as well as political union which consists of around twenty seven member states that are primarily
situated in the Europe. It has its system of laws which are required to be followed by the member
states who are part of the EU1. This essay shall deal with a question as to evaluation of the
methods which are required to measure the effectiveness of EU law.
MAIN BODY
The European Union is mainly on the basis of series on the treaties which recognized
European community and the European Union and subsequently the amendments were made to
the founding treaty. These are the treaty which give power and sets the policy goals at broad and
also establishes the principle institutions that have their own powers in order to apply these
goals. The legal power includes within its ambit the power to enact any law that may affect
directly all the states in EU and its inhabitants. It has its legal personality and has a right to
signature for the agreement and other treaties of international nature. Every member state of EU
are needed to implement the treaty to which they have ratified under principle of supremacy and
also they have to prevent the enactment of law which are in battle with the EU law.
The treaties of European Union itself declare that the laws of EU are originated on values
of the respect for democracy, human dignity, equality, rule of law and the human rights which
include right of person who belongs to minority group in the world.
For instance, when the UK was a part of European Union before signing the Brexit
agreement, they were required to follow the laws and provisions of EU treaty in their domestic
area2. For instance, the European Convention on Human rights (ECHR) is a part of EU law and
1 Holland T, 'Legal Foundations Of European Union Laws On Public Procurement' [2017] SSRN Electronic Journal
2 Dadomo C, and Quénivet N, European Union Law (2019)

all member states that have ratified this convention are required to enforce this in their domestic
law so United Kingdom have complied to this obligation and enacted the Human Rights Act of
1998 in their domestic area in order to enforce the provisions of ECHR.
There are many principle institutions of EU which are also known as decision making
bodies. The competence in amending and scrutinizing the legislations are shared between the
European Council and European Parliament while the task of executive is done by European
Commission but European Council also performs in limited capacity. The monetary policies of
EU zone are mainly decided by European Central bank and laws are interpreted and its
application is done by the Court of justice of EU3.
Its effectiveness can be measured by many factors which are narrated below as follows.
The first is the competency wherein the member states of EU retains powers and is not explicitly
given over to European Union. But in various areas, the EU enjoys exclusive competence where
the member states have renounced their power and power to enact any law and in some another
areas, both EU and its states have power to enact the legislation. While both the EU and member
states can make laws but their competency is extended to the limited where EU cannot legislate.
In many other policy areas, EU is obliged only to coordinate, supplement and support the action
of member state but it cannot enact law due to the aim of harmonizing the national laws4. For
instance, the European Union have the exclusive competency to prepare the directives and also
summarise the international agreement. It also has exclusive competency on following matters
such as establishing rule of competition which are essential for functioning of an internal market,
monetary policies for the member states which has its currency as Euro, some common
commercial policies and many others. The supporting competency of EU and its states are
extended to the areas such as improvement and protection of health of human beings, tourism,
culture, industry, sports and education, administrative cooperation and many others. Moreover,
the shared competency among member state and EU are on the matters such as social policies on
aspects which are defined in treaty, internal market, agriculture and fisheries, environment,
transport, consumer protection and many more.
3 Heine K, 'Regulatory Competition Between Company Laws In The European Union: The Überseering Case'
(2018) 38 Intereconomics
4 Watson R, 'European Union Considers Laws To Curb Working Hours' (2020) 310 BMJ

Another method to ensure the effectiveness of the EU may be legal system of EU. Under
the principle of supremacy, the European Union enjoys the supremacy over the member states
and obliges them to enforce their laws in the domestic area. The national laws are required to be
in harmony with that of the European laws and also they are obliged to enact such laws which
ensure the compliance of EU laws in their place5. For instance, the Competition Act of United
Kingdom is enacted while complying with the law of EU so that its provisions are followed in
the national laws and there is no conflict within the member states. The competition law
exclusively deals with trading in internal market which consists of all the member states. So it is
important to have harmony among all national laws of member states of EU so that they can
trade within the internal market effectively.
Another method which measures the effectiveness of European Union law is the court of
justice of EU which is the judicial body of EU. It comprises of two judicatures of which first is
Court of justice and other is General court. The former compacts with the cases which are
occupied by the member states, Institutions of EU and disputes which are referred by member
state courts. Due to the doctrine of supremacy and direct effect, many of the decisions of the
Court of justice are applicable in an automatic manner in the legal order of member state. On
other side, the latter court deals with the disputes which are taken by companies and individuals
directly before EU courts and its decisions are appealable to the Court of Justice only on the
point of law and not on any other basis. The applicability of judgments of COJ shows the
effectiveness of the EU law as to how much it influences the working of national countries.
Another method which usually measures the effectiveness of the EU law is its legal acts
which come in three different forms: regulations, decisions and directives. The regulations are
the one which becomes statutes in every member state as quickly as possible as they are enforced
without obligation of any of the implementing measure. The directives on other side are required
by member states to attain definite result while it leaves on them to show how to achieve this
result. A way in which the directives are to be applied are left on the states of EU. When there is
a time limit for implementing directives is passed, they might have direct effect under many
conditions in the national laws against the member states. While the decisions offer the
5 Varga A, 'Constitutional Identity As Interpreted By The Council Of Europe And The European Union' (2016) 4
Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law

alternatives of above two modes of legislations. However, the directives, regulations and
decisions are all of equal value and are applied without any of the formal hierarchy6.
6 Chalmers D, and Szyszczak E, European Union Law (Ashgate/Dartmouth 2017)

CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it is concluded that the European Union is a large ambit which
consists of many states within it. All the member states of EU are obliged to follow the laws and
decisions made by the principle institutions of European Union. Every member state is required
to follow the rules and legislations enacted by EU and have to enact the national law by keeping
harmony among national and EU law. There are many methods or factors which measures the
effectiveness of the EU law which includes firstly the competency wherein the EU have
exclusive competency to enact laws on certain subjects while have supporting and shared
competency for other subjects but in short, EU states are obligatory to enforce principles of EU
law in their national law. Second is legal system wherein the principle institutions of EU are the
body which have authority in their specific areas to regulate the working of entire EU. Third is
Court of justice of EU where its decisions are to be followed by the national courts of member
states and they are not allowed to pass any judgment which is inconsistent with the EU court.
Lastly, the legal acts which requires the members states to implement the legal acts of EU in
their domestic area. Thus, it can be said that the EU law have supremacy over the member states
and their working.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chalmers D, and Szyszczak E, European Union Law (Ashgate/Dartmouth 2017)
Dadomo C, and Quénivet N, European Union Law (2019)
Heine K, 'Regulatory Competition Between Company Laws In The European Union: The
Überseering Case' (2018) 38 Intereconomics
Holland T, 'Legal Foundations Of European Union Laws On Public Procurement' [2017] SSRN
Electronic Journal
Varga A, 'Constitutional Identity As Interpreted By The Council Of Europe And The European
Union' (2016) 4 Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law
Watson R, 'European Union Considers Laws To Curb Working Hours' (2020) 310 BMJ