The European Community Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The European Community Law - Essay Example The Maastricht Treaty transformed the EC into the EU. The total number of EU member countries is 25. The EU has a number of objectives, chief among them being to promote and expand cooperation among member states in economics, trade, social issues, foreign policy, security, defense and judicial matters. Under the Maastricht Treaty, European citizenship was granted to citizens of each member state, border controls were relaxed and suitable modifications in the customs and immigration agreements were brought about in order to allow European citizens greater freedom to live, work, and study in any of the member states2. The European Court of Justice developed constitutional principles in order to ensure the effective and uniform application of Community law within the Member States.The distinction between the EC and national legal systems and the maintenance of the supremacy of the Community law, direct and indirect effects, loyalty and subsidiarity are important factors of the European legal order. However, the development of these principles has not been uniformly well received by the Member States, because of the adverse effect that they have had on the balance of the relationship between Community law and Member States national law. In EC law the constitutional principles have been linked with the judicial review principles. Many constitutional courts, including those of Germany and Italy, refused to accept these constitutional principles in the absence of the acceptance by the ECJ of specific judicial review principles, such as human rights protection. While the judicial review principles have been developed to ensure the effective and uniform application of Community administrative law, it has been argued that the manner of their development is the clearest demonstration that the ECJ has taken on a role larger than that originally envisaged for  it in the Treaty3.