Sources of Union law

The Treaties:

• Primary sources of Union law
• Treaties establish Union's aims, institutions and legislative procedures
• Treaties can be seen as the Union's constitution
• Treaties can have both horizontal and vertical direct effect provided that provision is clear , precise and unconditional (aka the treaty has been breached)
• (Van Gend en Loos [1963]) also look at Macarthys Ltd v Smith (1979)

Regulations:

• A regulation is a binding, primary piece of legislation
• Regulations are directly applicable
• Article 288 of TFEU allows the EU the right to create regulations
• Regulations are binding in their entirety on each member state
• They can have both horizontal and vertical direct effect provided that the 'Van Gend' requirements are met (Leonosio v Italy [1973])

Directives:

• Not directly applicable
• Less precisely worded than regulations
• Is binding, but leaves form and method of implementation to each member state
• Can have vertical direct effect (unless the Francovich principles apply, then can have horizontal direct effect)

Decisions:

• Not directly applicable
• A decision may be addressed to a member state, a company or a person. For example: granting export licenses to companies outside of the EU
• Can have vertical direct effect only, and only when addressed to a member state