European Union Law

The European Union is the result of a unique attempt at international integration. While other integration movements have always relied on a continuous political affirmation of integration by the participating states, the European Union is characterized by a transfer of sovereign rights of legislation, execution, and adjudication to central institutions. At the same time the Treaty of Rome has introduced the legal framework of a common market providing for individual rights and obligations of citizens in the whole Union. This article sets out the basic legal structures of the Union and the Common Market, the types of legal instruments and their essential effects, and the efforts undertaken to harmonize national legal system.