Law - Development of Law

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being taken against the state.

There are 28 Commissioners are made up of members of each member state, one for each. The Commissioners are appointed by the member states governments but are totally independant from each one and should not only represent for the good of their country, but for the good of the EU. Similar to PMQ’s we have in the UK, every Wednesday, the Commissioners meetup to discuss current affairs. Each member of the Commission is bound by an oath to the ECJ to represent the EU.

The Commission was set up from the start to act as an independent supranational authority separate from governments. Through article 17 of the Treaty on The European Union, the Commission has several responsibilities: to develop medium-term strategies; to draft legislation and arbitrate in the legislative process; to represent the EU in trade negotiations; to make rules and regulations such as drawing up the budget of the EU; and to scrutinise the implementation of the treaties and legislation.

The Commission play a very large role in making sure that the EU is the best it can be by making sure that everything is done correctly and that no member state break a treaty or not conform with an EU law that has been agreed on. The EU commission acts as a combination of the UK’s House of Lords and House of Commons by making legislation and passing it through, but in contrast to it, the Commission have a much larger responsibility due to the fact that they not only are they responsible for each member state, but for all 28 of them.

Question 2.

Explain what action can be taken against the United Kingdom State if it fails to comply with a European Directive [14]

In Sc 189 ir states that “A directive shall be binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each member state to which it is directed, while leaving it to national authorities the choice of form and method” what is meant by that is that a directive is not as influential as a regulation. A directive directs each member state on what the law should be, but it is left to each member state to implement this law and what it should be. Similar to a regulation, like it is binding on all member states, but all individual states must bring out their own legislation through the perspective of the Parliaments.

When a directive is implemented by the Commission, it will set a time limit i which it must be implemented which is usually 2 years. But if a member state fails to implement the directive in that time, the European Court of JUstice will intervene and will force that member state to implement that directive with a fine. It is at each member state’s discretion whether to implement the maximum standards required by the directive, some member states will implement higher standards than another which can lead to issues as each member state may not see it the same as another, it may be misinterpreted by other member states, this would be due to the ambiguity of each and every directive.

If a member state fails to implements to directive, not only will the member state be fined, but the directive will be forced upon them. This happened to the UK during Re Tachographs (EC Commission v UK) 1979. During this case, an EC law made tachographs compulsory in all lorries in the EU. The UK did not change its law but introduced a voluntary scheme instead of the tachographs. The Commission had told the UK to comply to the law, and when it was refused, the UK was taken to the ECJ and ruled that the UK must comply and do what was necessary for the law to be introduced. Not only does the EU have this power, but also has the power to declare any law that is passed illegally by the Council and the Commission. It also deals with disputes between the Community and its employees.

In all, the UK must follow all regulations and directives that are passed by the EU as it is inevitable that the law will be passed. It is only the right thing to do to pass them as it will cost less due to the fact that a fine will not have to be payed to the EU for not complying. As the name states “directives” it only directs the member states on what needs to be done to apply the law and the EU will only give a basis on what needs to be done, ti si up to the member states to decide on how they will uphold this new law

What has been the impact of European Law on the laws of the UK, and what will be its impacts in the future? [11]

In the past, the EU has been controlled by the several treaties that have been signed mainly the Treaty of rome 1957, the Treaty of Maastricht 1992 and the Treaty of Lisbon 2007-2009 which was the treaty that allowed a country to leave the EU, before the Treaty of Lisbon 2007-2009, there was no legal contract that stated the departure of any EU member state. Treaties and Regulations apply directly to each member state as soon as they are made unlike directives, they do not have to be “implemented”, as soon as the treaties and regulations are signed, they are applied straight away.

When the United Kingdom joined the EEC in January 1st 1973, all of the European law that had applied to the European countries instantly applied to the UK. Many of the laws today that we have in the UK are European laws and some of the ones that provide us with equal rights and fair working times are European laws, such as the Human Rights Act 1998, which was created years after the United Kingdom joined the European Union and the Working Time Directive. Post-Brexit, these laws wills not apply to the United Kingdom due to the fact that they are European Union laws and are only bound by the treaties, the treaties will not apply when we leave the EU.

It is likely that the UK will keep the laws that it likes. To do this however will take a very long time as each and every must be passed through Parliament and become an official UK law. What will be done post Brexit, Theresa May, plans to out a bill put called “The Great Repeal Bill” the aim of this is that teg legislation will end the authority of EU law by converting all its provisions in British law on the day of exit from the EU, at the same time, the European Communities Act 1972 giving direct effect to all EU law will be repealed. When the Great Repeal Act is initiated, none of the treaties will apply to the UK.

The most controversial and why we are leaving the EU is the Single Market, the SIngle Market is the free movement of goods, people and capital throughout the EU. This is controversial due to the fact that people do not have the same opinions, eurosceptic and europhiles