In 1963, the European Court of Justice decided its first case and gave rise to a new form of legal case throughout Europe. Prior to the decision in Van Gend, it was thought to only be possible for the European Commission or Member States to bring cases against one-another in the European Court for breaches of Treaty Articles, rather than individuals being able to sue for breach of Treaty rights at a national level.
What Was Van Gend en Loos About?
The case revolved around the principle of free movement of goods, as enshrined in Article 25 of the EC Treaty (and Article 12 of the original Treaty of Rome). Van Gend en Loos had transported ureaformaldehyde across the Netherlands-Germany border and were charged customs duty; which they argued breached the Treaty article.
The company took their case to the Dutch courts, which did not know whether they had the jurisdiction to handle it. The court promptly asked the ECJ for advice via what is now known as an Article 234 reference. The ECJ's response came back as the first european case: Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen [1963] ECR 1.
The Effect of Van Gend
Mirroring the European Court's assessment of the EC when it declared “... the Community constitutes a new legal order of international law...”, Van Gend en Loos changed the legal landscape in Europe forever. It established the principle of direct effect for Treaty articles and laid out the Van Gend criteria for future determining of whether direct effect existed for any given piece of legislation.
The case is notable for the manner in which it established the principle of direct effect. The Treaty of Rome does not discuss how national courts were to deal with the implementation of the Treaty and thus the ECJ determined that “...to secure uniform interpretation of the Treaty by national courts … Community law has an authority which can be invoked by [a Member State's] nationals before those courts...” Essentially, therefore, the European court used jurisprudence to establish a key element of European law which the Member States themselves had not agreed on.
The Supremacy of EC Law
From this point on, it was clear that where any national legislation or practices contravened EC law, EC law takes preference. This idea of EC supremacy has had far-reaching consequences for national courts, even going so far as effectively granting them new powers to overrule the national legislative body; as British courts discovered in the Factortame case. Here, the court found it had acquired the power to bind the Crown in order to ensure EC law was adhered to; a power that had never before existed in English law.
Van Gend en Loos has forever changed the fabric of law in the European Community. From a simple case of being wrongly charged for import duty by Dutch customs, a “new legal order” was established. Now all nationals of EC Member States can rely on the rights granted to them by EC Treaties, Regulations and, in certain circumstances, EC Directives even if their national legislative body has yet to implement them.
Zoe Kirk-Robinson - Zoë Kirk-Robinson is a freelance writer/artist specialising in legal writing, internet technology and creative writing. She holds a ...
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