Critically examine the European Court of Justice (ECJ)s concept of Essay

Critically examine the European Court of Justice (ECJ)s concept of supremacy of EC Law with the aid of case examples - Essay Example 7). For example, Member States are required to ensure that all of their Treaty commitments are fulfilled and must not â€Å"jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of this Treaty† (TFEU, art. 10). The EC Treaty also confers responsibility on the ECJ to ensure that the Treaty is interpreted and applied for the enforcement of Community law (TFEU, art. 220). The ECJ established the concept of supremacy in Van Gend en Loos v Netherlands (1963) by enunciating two main principles of Community law: direct effect of Community Law in Member States and supremacy of Community law over the national laws of Member States. The ECJ stated that Community law has establishing a new â€Å"legal order† under which Member States have voluntarily surrendered their sovereignty (Van Gend en Loos v Netherlands, 1963, see also Costa, 1964). The UK does not acknowledge the surrender of sovereignty, but instead adheres to a dualist constitutional system. Monalism states automatically incorporate international law into national systems (Schutze, 2012). EC supremacy in the UK is only acknowledged via an Act of Parliament and thus firmly establishes and reinforces Parliamentary sovereignty in the UK. For instance, Lord Denning MR, in anticipation of signing the EC Treaty noted that the UK did not specifically take notice of treaties. It would only take notice of treaties that are embodied in a statute enacted by Parliament (Blackburn v AG 1971). Thus, the UK acknowledges that treaty law is only applied by an act of Parliament not by the direct application of treaty law (Aust, 2008). For example, the European Community Act 1972 (ECA) provides that the EC Treaty will be given â€Å"legal effect† in the UK â€Å"without further enactment† and all national laws must be interpreted in such a way as to give effect to Community law (ECA ss. 2(1) and 2(4)). Even so, when applying Community law, the UK will not apply