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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.
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
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.
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