THE PRIORITY PRINCIPLE FOR THE APPLICATION OF EUROPEAN LAW IN RELATION TO NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

Ioan Ciochină-Barbu[1]

p. 177 - 188

Abstract

The European law is an integral part of the legal system of Member States and it must be applied by their courts, stated the Justice Court of the European Union in its jurisprudence.

The EEC Treaty established its own legal order, integrated into the legal system of the Member States from the time the Treaty entered into force and which is imposed to their courts. Through the introduction of a community with unlimited time, equipped with its own institutions, personality and legal capacity, with a capacity of international representation and, more precisely, with real powers originating from a limitation on sovereignty or from a transfer of competences from the member states to the Community, they have limited their sovereign rights and have thus created a body of law applicable to their nationals and themselves. The transfer of rights and obligations corresponding to the Treaty’s dispositions, which were carried out by the States from their national legal order in the benefit of the community’s legal order, determine, therefore, a definitive limitation of their sovereign rights. Consequently, if a national rule is contrary to a European provision, the authorities of the Member States must apply the European disposition and the national norm is neither canceled nor repealed, but its mandatory force is suspended.

Keywords: law, European, priority, application, constitutional, national

[1] Ioan Ciochină-Barbu, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration, within “George  Bacovia’’  University, Bacău, Romania; contact: ioan_ciochina.at.yahoo.com

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