歐洲法律

European Law

1973年7月愛爾蘭加入了歐盟，當時該組織被稱之爲歐洲共同體。成爲歐盟成員國之後，歐盟要求愛爾蘭的本國法在共同體權限範圍內服從共同體法。爲此，愛爾蘭需要修正其憲法以表示這一協議的實施。愛爾蘭法中現在有一項條款規定在本國憲法中沒有任何條款可以阻止共同體法在愛爾蘭的法律實施。對于作爲歐盟成員國國家的需要所通過的國家法律，憲法也無權使其無效。

On 1 July 1973 Ireland became a member of what was then the European Communities. In doing so Ireland was required to accept the supremacy of Communitylaw over Irish law in areas of Community competence. It was therefore necessary to amend the Irish Constitution to reflect this arrangement. There is now a provision which ensures that nothing in the Constitution can prevent Community law from having the force of law in the State. Nor can the Constitution be used to invalidateany national law adopted which was necessitated by membership of the European Union or the Communities.

共同體法包括條約法及共同體各機構通過的歐洲司法和立法院的判決。立法最爲重要的是形式是法規和指令.法規適用于各成員國，它繞過了各國正常的立法程序。指令與法規不同，它對成員國提出一些法律要求，但如何滿足這些要求，則由各國按照本國的法律自行決定。在愛爾蘭，指令通常是通過二級立法來實施。歐洲法院和愛爾蘭法院受委托共同監督並確保共同體法的實施。

Community law takes the form of treaty law, judgments of the European Courtof Justice and legislation enacted by the Community institutions. The most significant forms of Community legislation are Regulations and Directives. Regulations are automatically applicable within the Member States and in that sense they bypass the normal legislative procedures of the State. Directives are different from Regulations in that they will set out a number of legal requirements that are to be met. However, it is left to each State to decide how it will implement those requirements in itsdomestic law. In Ireland, Directives are generally implemented by way of secondary legislation. The task of ensuring the implementation of Community law has been entrusted to the European Court of Justice and the Irish Courts are bound by its decisions.