Module 3

EU law and national law: direct effect, consistent interpretation, state liability and the primacy of Union law

Union law is made in Brussels and applied in the courts of the member states. That is the whole difficulty and the whole genius of the system. If Union rules reached individuals only through national legislation, a state could ignore them by never passing the law. If they could never be challenged in a national court, they would be promises between governments. The Court of Justice solved the problem in a series of rulings from 1963 on, which gave individuals the right to rely on Union law before their own courts, required national courts to give it priority, and made states pay when their failure harmed someone. This module teaches those rulings as a connected scheme of four questions that you can ask in any case: can the person rely on the rule, can the national law be read to fit it, if not does the rule prevail, and is the state liable for the harm?

General education on European Union law, using invented people and businesses and abstract member states. It states the Treaty framework and landmark decisions in simplified form, and it is not legal advice. Rules change and national implementation differs. Consult a qualified lawyer in the place that matters.