Sovereignty and the Supremacy Doctrine of the European Court of Justice
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Description
This short contribution was prompted by a question which arose during a seminar on the subject of the supremacy of EC law, concerning whether the terms ‘supremacy of EC law’ and ’sovereignty of the EC’ refer to the same concept. There was some confusion on the matter, and the purpose of this brief contribution is to examine the relationship between these two terms. As this book demonstrates, sovereignty is a fundamental but complex notion which has been defined in many different ways and in many different contexts. This chapter focuses primarily on the conceptual definition of ultimate, self-defining legal authority but also draws occasionally on the political sense of actual authority and control. The supremacy doctrine of the European Court of Justice—the power and originality of which is almost dulled now by the familiarity of the famous judicial passages—will be examined with two questions in mind. The first is whether the supremacy doctrine necessarily entails or presupposes a claim to sovereignty on behalf of the EC (and more problematically, but less likely, of the EU), and the second is whether it necessarily presupposes a claim of abandonment or loss of sovereignty on the part of the Member States. The plausibility of those claims will be considered primarily by reference to a legal-conceptual understanding of the notion of sovereignty, and to a lesser extent in the light of a more political or practical understanding of the notion.
Source Publication
Sovereignty in Transition
Source Editors/Authors
Neil Walker
Publication Date
2003
Recommended Citation
de Búrca, Gráinne, "Sovereignty and the Supremacy Doctrine of the European Court of Justice" (2003). Faculty Chapters. 329.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/329
