The Gazette 1989

FEBRUARY

1989

GAZETTE

Sources of European Community Law: Where to find them

PART I By Margaret Byrne, Librarian, The Law Society

including Catalogues of EC Publi- cations, can be purchased directly or ordered through the Government Publications Sales Office, SunAlliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2. The treaties and amendments thereto have been implemented in all the member states by national legislation following, where necessary, amendments to national Constitutions. In Ireland, following a referendum, a new Article 29.4.3 was inserted in Bunreacht na hEireann by the Third Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1972. This was followed by the enactment of the European Communities Act, 1972, which came into effect on 1 January, 1973. European Communities (Amend- ment) Acts were enacted to provide for the second and third treaties of accession as well as for other amendments to the treaties, the most recent being the European Communities (Amendment) Act, 1986, and the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1987, to incorporate into Irish law the changes effected by the Single European Act. A full list of the EC legislation enacted can be found in the Index to the Statutes 1922-85 and subsequent annual lists. In addition to the official texts of the treaties published by the EC there are various commercially pub- lished editions with annotations, including Rudden & Wyatt, Basic Community Laws, 2nd Ed., 1986, and Sweet and Maxwell's Encyclo- paedia of European Community Law, B volumes, and Sweet and Maxwell's EC Treaties, 4th Ed., 1980. Secondary Legislation Secondary legislation comprises the legal acts made by the Council and the Commission of the EC in implementing the powers granted to them in the Community treaties.

This article, in two parts, is a guide to the literature of European Community Law. Part I covers the sources of the European Community's legal sys t em- the primary legislation: the treaties establishing the European Communities; the secondary legislation: the regulations, directives, decisions and other acts made by the Community institutions as provided for in the treaties; the international agreements concluded between the European Communities and non-member states or other international organisations; together with the case law of the European Court of Justice. Part 2, which will be published in the next issue of the Gazette, will deal with the secondary literature including EC and commercial publications. Primary Legislation

the Act of the Council concern- ing direct elections to the European Parliament (1976); the Single European Act and Final Act, 1986; and the three accession treaties: the first Treaty of Accession and its Annexes (1972) (accession of UK, Ireland and Denmark); the second Treaty of Accession and its Annexes (1979) (acces- sion of Greece); the third Treaty of Accession and its Annexes (1985) (accession of Spain and Portugal). The current official edition of the treaties published by the Office for Official Publications of the EC is the 1987 edition in 2 vols. Vol. 1 - Treaties establishing the European Communities; treaties amending these treaties; Single European Act. Vol. 2 - Accession documents. These volumes contain all the treaties and their annexes in force on 1 July, 1987. The text of treaties and amendments are published in the Official Journal L Series. (See below for details of OJ.) Publications of the Office for Official Publications of the EC,

The European Communities com- prise three separate Communities each established by a separate treaty: the European Coal and Steel Community, established by the ECSC Treaty (Treaty of Paris, 1951); the European Economic Com- munity, established by the EEC Treaty (Treaty of Rome, 1957); the European Atomic Energy Community, established by the EAEC or Euratom Treaty (Treaty of Rome, 1957). The principal amending treaties to these three foundation treaties are: the Convention on Certain Institutions common to the European Communities (Rome, 1957); the treaty establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities (the Merger Treaty) (Brussels, 1965); the Treaty of Luxembourg of 22 April, 1970, and the Treaty of Brussels of 22 July, 1975, on budgetary matters;

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