European Union Law and National Law: A Common Legal System?

Abstract

Abstract: EU law and the national laws of the EU Member States are closely interwoven. From a historical point of view, they form two different legal orders, but they may today be viewed as forming part of the same legal system. The chapter explains the relationship between EU law and national law by looking first at the status of EU law in national law and then at the relevance of national law to EU law. The status and impact of EU law in domestic legal systems have already received a great deal of attention in the legal doctrine, and the chapter therefore particularly focuses on the second aspect, which has to date received far less attention. The role domestic laws play at the EU level is examined here by looking at the different functions that Member State national laws have in an EU law context by examining the relevance of national material (substantive) and procedural and institutional laws at the EU level. This chapter concludes that the relationship between EU law and domestic laws is fundamentally different from the traditional dichotomy between public international law and domestic law. Member State national laws have directly impacted, and continue to impact, the substance of EU law. Furthermore, the way in which EU law instrumentalises domestic laws—in particular domestic institutional law—for its own purposes and harnesses national administrative bodies to the same end suggests that EU law and national law are best understood as forming a single complex system of