ࡱ> AD@ bjbj A& %84C"fWm"%"'"'"'"'"'"'"$ $&RK"K";`"III%"I%"II t]"v"0"''' "IK"K"+"' :  court in the act Baron Frankal This months real story comes from Luxembourg, where the European Court of Justice, again, pushed forward the EUs boundaries. Once upon a time, the ECJ was a works tribunal for Brussels staff. One day, to little fanfare, it quoted one of its own previous decisions - unheard of for an international court. And so began the extraordinary story of ECJ jurisprudence, through Costa and Van Gend en Loos (the ones lawyers regurgitate whatever the question), which transformed a common or garden treaty system into the unique constitutional order that is todays EU, en route handing important powers and legitimacy to the European Parliament. Now, European law has undisputed primacy over national law, the EU can force Member States to apply EU law properly (or compensate those who lose because they didnt) and the ECJ can pull rank on any court the length and breadth of Europe, and often does. This time it pulled rank on EU governments themselves, telling them that in future, where citizens or companies are really, really dirty (in the environmental sense) the European Commission can make sure offenders against European law are punished through national criminal justice systems. That means Brussels can put you in jail. That, at least, is what the simplistic headlines say. As ever, the situation is rather more complex. It has always been a requirement that Member States enforce Community law; and much of that means applying national criminal law, so since 1974, Britons could be thrown into jail because of a provision of European law. There must be a mechanism, ultimately, to enforce law. Like the pope, the EU has no divisions its weapon is the law, its army the judges and its barracks the courts. In fact, everyone agrees on the need for penalties; the question was who would enforce them. The ECJ ruling is in the familiar territory of the power struggle between Community institutions (here, the Commission) and the Member States (here, the Council). The Council decided they had the power to determine penalties, the Commission disagreed, arguing that since the environment is a matter for the Community, it should have also have some powers though as in all Community lawmaking the Commision can only propose, the joint decision-makers being Parliament and the Council. As usual, the ECJ said that the Commission was right. Correctly: it did no more than acknowledge the reality of what Member States have signed up to in the Maastricht Treaty. The judgement, however, should not be underestimated: slowly, slowly, slowly, harmonisation of criminal law begins. As to anyone actually thrown into Strangeways, they probably wont be too worried whether theyre there because of a Council Framework Decision or a Directive First published as onwards and upwards in the budapest sun, 29 september 2005,  HYPERLINK "http://www.budapestsun.com/cikk.php?id=16222" http://www.budapestsun.com/cikk.php?id=16222     PAGE  PAGE 2 UWdei % / 0 n q ʾxpxpxexZxZxxxexOhWEhj8CJaJhWEhCJaJhWEhiCJaJhCJaJhWEhmCJaJhWEhsfCJaJhWEhCJaJhWEhYCJaJhzxFCJaJ"hihj856CJaJmH sH h 'hzxF6CJaJh 'hzxF5CJaJhzxF56CJaJmH sH h?56CJaJmH sH h~6CJmH sH e 3 !rh]h&`#$$dhdd[$\$a$gdzxF $a$gdzxF$dhdd[$\$a$gd$dhd\$a$gdzxF$a$gdj8$a$gdRE ) 1 2 @ Q  @ A /   º“ˆ}n_n_n_nhWEhB*CJaJphhWEhB*CJaJphhWEhCJaJhWEhiCJaJhg"CJaJhg"B*CJaJphhWEhCJaJhJCJaJho{CJaJhWEh\yCJaJhWEhsfCJaJhzxFCJ]aJhWEhj8CJ]aJhzxFCJaJhWEhj8CJaJ" 2 3 #')127stvx~d˾˔˔xixixi]i]ixhB*CJaJphhWEho{B*CJaJphho{B*CJaJphh?hCJ\aJmH sH hzxFCJ\aJmH sH h6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666hH6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666662 0@P`p2( 0@P`p 0@P`p 0@P`p 0@P`p 0@P`p 0@P`p8XV~_HmH nH sH tH H`H Normal5$7$8$9DH$_HmH sH tH DA`D Default Paragraph FontViV  Table Normal :V 44 la (k (No List @&@ Footnote ReferenceH*X/X Default5$7$8$9DH$B*CJ_HmH phsH tH 0 List Bullet~ & F hh>TTf^h`Z^"Z Normal (Web) ddB*CJOJQJmH phsH 4U@14  Hyperlink >*ph3fHBH gd Balloon TextCJOJQJ^JaJLRL m Footnote Text 1$5$9D mH sH tH P @bP j8Footer !5$7$8$9DH$ CJaJtH .)@q. j8 Page NumberPK![Content_Types].xmlj0Eжr(΢Iw},-j4 wP-t#bΙ{UTU^hd}㨫)*1P' ^W0)T9<l#$yi};~@(Hu* Dנz/0ǰ $ X3aZ,D0j~3߶b~i>3\`?/[G\!-Rk.sԻ..a濭?PK!֧6 _rels/.relsj0 }Q%v/C/}(h"O = C?hv=Ʌ%[xp{۵_Pѣ<1H0ORBdJE4b$q_6LR7`0̞O,En7Lib/SeеPK!kytheme/theme/themeManager.xml M @}w7c(EbˮCAǠҟ7՛K Y, e.|,H,lxɴIsQ}#Ր ֵ+!,^$j=GW)E+& 8PK!Ptheme/theme/theme1.xmlYOo6w toc'vuر-MniP@I}úama[إ4:lЯGRX^6؊>$ !)O^rC$y@/yH*񄴽)޵߻UDb`}"qۋJחX^)I`nEp)liV[]1M<OP6r=zgbIguSebORD۫qu gZo~ٺlAplxpT0+[}`jzAV2Fi@qv֬5\|ʜ̭NleXdsjcs7f W+Ն7`g ȘJj|h(KD- dXiJ؇(x$( :;˹! 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