The Gazette 1972

before decisions are taken on certain important matters. The Court of Justice The Court of Justice will be the subject for the next article in this series and it will not now be dealt with in detail. The Court deals with cases brought by the Commission for infringements of the Treaties and also appeals by Governments and individuals against deci- sions of the Commission. It is the final interpreter of the provisions of the Treaties and deals with inter- locutory appeals from national courts asking it to rule as to the interpretation or applicability of particular provisions of Community law. Community Legislation The Treaty of Rome provides for the following legis- lative and quasi-legislative instruments. (a) Regulations : Regulations are binding in their entirety and take direct effect in each member state without reference to national legislatures. This form of legislation may be used only where expressly provided for in the Treaty. They are used mainly as instruments of the common policies such as agricultural policy or transport policy. It is in the form of a regulation that the statute on European Company Law is expected to be passed and this will then exist over and above national company law. (b) Directives : This is the most common form of legislation. A directive under Article 189 of the Treaty of Rome is binding as to the result to be achieved but leaves to national authorities the choice of form and methods. As a rule the directive will state the period within which the national authorities must amend their law or practice to comply with the direction. (c) Decisions : Formal decisions of the Council and Commission are binding in their entirety upon those to whom they are directed—not just member states. Art. 192 of the Treaty provides that decisions involving a pecuniary obligation on persons other than states shall have the enforceability of a court judgment, enforce-

ment being governed by the rules of civil procedure in the state to whose territory it is directed. Recommendations and opinions Recommendations and opinions of the Council and Commission have no binding effect. "Journal Officiel" All the legislation and quasi-legislation by the E.E.C. Council and Commission is published in the official journal of the E.E.C. (the Journal Officiel, or "J.O." as it is usually known). Copies of the J.O., which is issued weekly, are obtainable from Government Publications Sales Office. Proposed legislation is also published in the J.O. The J.O. now has two series : one has the letter L as a suffix, which signifies Legislation and contains only the regulations and other instruments which have received E.E.C. Council approval and are therefore enacted. The other series has the suffix C which indi- cates that the E.E.C. Commission has communicated a draft to the E.E.C. Council for enactment; in addition to the equivalents of Bills, the C series also contains memoranda to the Council by the E.E.C. Commission, which are policy proposals corresponding, very approxi- mately, to White Papers. The J.O. will be available in English from January 1973 and copies will be available in the Solicitors Library. Unofficial translations of all important docu- ments which have appeared in the J.O. up to that date will shortly be available in the library also. There is a vast amount of E.E.C. legislation—there are well over two thousand legislative instruments to be applied to Ireland next January. The form in which it will be applied is not yet clear but it may be necessary for the practitioner to consult the original E.E.C. docu- ments. It is hoped that this series of introductory articles may help practitioners to decide to what extent it will be necessary to have regard to E.E.C. legislation when advising clients. equal proportions resulted from prohibited concerted action. (2) If the answer was in the affirmative whether companies with headquarters outside the Common Mar- ket could be subjected to financial penalties for their participation. (3) Whether the administrative proceedings instituted by the Commission were not vitiated by irregularities of procedure or violations of basic rights. (4) Whether failing a rule of prescription, which so far had not been introduced into the body of Com- munity law the time which had elapsed between the alleged concerted action and the institution of judicial proceedings by the Commission had not taken away the possibility that the alleged practices might be properly sanctioned. The case is ynder deliberation and judgment will be delivered in the near future.

EUROPEAN LAW REPORTS-DYESTUFFS CASE Following complaints by various industrial consumers of dye stuffs the Commission of the E.E.C. found that during the period January 1964 to October 1967 three geneal and uniform increases in the price of dye stuffs occurred throughout the Common Market. The Com- mission instituted action against the firms which made price increases in proceedings provided for by Council regulation no. 17/62 in the case of suspected violation of Article 85 of the Rome Treaty which prohibits restrictive practices by concerted action. The Commis- sion considered that the price increases which had occurred resulted from conserted action prohibited by the first paragraph of Article 85 and imposed fines ranging from $40,000 and $50,000. An appeal was Brought to the European Court. The advocate general submitted that there were four questions. (1) Whether the linear increase which occurred in

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