Zakotvení pozice evropského práva ve Spojeném království

The Legal Basis and Application of Eu Law in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom joined the European Communities in 1973, after two former unsuccessful attempts vetoed by France. In harmony with the UK’s dualist approach towards the relationship between treaties and domestic law, the legal basis of EC/EU law application in the UK is the European Communities Act 1972 and its later amendments. From the beginning, the cardinal issue for courts applying EC/EU law has been how to accommodate obligations stemming from this legal system, especially the respect for the principle of EC/EU law precedence over domestic law, with principles forming the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty pursuant to which, inter alia, courts have to obey the latest expression of parliamentary will in an Act of Parliament. There are some doctrinal disagreements as to how UK courts have managed to assert the precedence of EC/EU law. Generally, their reputation of EC/EU law application has been considered high. In 2011, the European Union Act was enacted which substantially modifies the procedure of domestic control over a wide scale of decisions pursuant to the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which either shift the division of competences/powers in the EU or otherwise influence the position of the UK in a way considered important by the Act. The most fundamental change has been the introduction of a requirement of holding an obligatory referendum in a great number of cases and treating the consent of the electorate in the referendum as a condition for domestic approval of a particular EU related decision. The Act has come in for criticism from some commentators for its excessive use of referenda and for some other aspects, too. The impact of EC/EU law application on the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty has been far-reaching. In the context of fundamental changes in the domestic constitution during the last decades (inter alia the adoption of the Human Rights Act 1998), it may be that the remaining principles of this doctrine face a risk of further curtailment.