Chapter 5 Answers to the self-test questions

Questions

  1. What did the 1957 Treaty of Rome establish?
  2. What is the role of the Court of Justice of the EU?
  3. What is the principle of direct effect?
  4. How did the primacy of EU law affect Parliamentary sovereignty in the UK?
  5. What did the Benn Act provide?
  6. Which statute did the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 repeal and what was the effect of this?
  7. What was the purpose behind creating retained EU law?
  8. How could the UK Internal Market Act 2020 affect devolved legislative powers?

Answers

  1. It established the European Economic Community (EEC), a trading bloc enabling the free movement of people, goods and services across borders.
  2. It interprets EU law and rules on requests for preliminary rulings from national courts, ensuring the uniform application of EU law in member states. It hears cases against national governments for failing to comply with EU law, and direct actions by individuals and companies against EU institutions.
  3. Established by the ECJ in the Van Gend en Loos case, the principle of direct effect enables individuals and companies to enforce EU law rights directly in national courts, ensuring the effective application of EU law in member states. The conditions for direct effect to apply are: the obligations must be clear and precise, unconditional and not requiring additional law, and must confer a specific right on which an individual can base a claim.
  4. EU law has primacy over the national law of its member states and prevails where the two conflict. In the UK, section 2(1) of the European Communities Act 1972 allowed directly applicable European laws (Treaties and Regulations) to take effect as part of UK domestic law without further reference to Parliament. Because EU law was legally superior to UK domestic law, EU law prevailed where they conflicted in areas of EU competence.
  5. The European Union (Withdrawal) (No 2) Act 2019 (the Benn Act) required the Prime Minister to request a three-month extension of the exit date until 31 January 2020 to avoid a no-deal Brexit. The Act was repealed by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020.
  6. The EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (as amended by the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020) expressly repealed the European Communities Act 1972 on exit day (section 1) but the European Communities Act continued to have effect until the end of the transition period; after this, EU law no longer has supremacy over UK law (with a few exceptions).
  7. Retained EU law was created to avoid gaps in the law and maintain a functioning statute book after Brexit. The EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (as amended by the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020) converted into UK domestic law all existing direct EU law and EU-related domestic law in force at the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020.
  8. The UK Internal Market Act 2020 could allow the UK Parliament to override future legislation passed by the devolved legislatures to avoid inconsistent internal trade regulations. It was passed without the legislative consent of the Scottish and Welsh governments.
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