Law Interpretation in Europe

Interpretation of National Law in Line With Union Law

To prevent conflict between Union law and national law arising from the application of the rule of precedence, all State bodies that specifically implement or rule on the law can draw on the interpretation of national law in line with Union law.

Context of Law Interpretation in the European Union

It took a fairly long time for the concept of interpretation in line with EU law to be recognised by the Court of Justice and incorporated into the Union legal order. After the Court of Justice had initially considered it to be appropriate to ensure that national laws were in harmony with a directive only when requested to do so by national courts, it established an obligation to interpret national law in accordance with the directives for the first time in 1984 in the case Von Colson and Kamann. This case ruled on the amount of compensation to be awarded for discrimination against women with regard to access to employment. Whereas the relevant German legal provisions provided only for compensation for ‘Vertrauensschaden’ (futile reliance on a legitimate expectation), Directive 76/207/EEC states that national law must provide for effective penalties to ensure that equal opportunities are provided with regard to access to employment. Since, however, the relevant penalties were not set out in more detail, the directive could not be considered directly applicable on this point, and there was a risk that the Court of Justice would have to rule that, although the national law failed to comply with Union law, there was no basis for the national courts to not take the national law into account. The Court of Justice therefore ruled that the national courts were obliged to interpret and apply national legislation in civil matters in such a way that there were effective penalties for discrimination on the basis of gender. A purely symbolic compensation would not meet the requirement of an effective application of the directive.

More about Law Interpretation in the European Union

The Court of Justice attributes the legal basis for the interpretation of national law in line with Union law to the general principle of sincere cooperation (Article 4(3) TEU). Under this article, Member States must take all appropriate measures, whether general or particular, to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the EU Treaty or resulting from action taken by the Union institutions. The national authorities are therefore also obliged to bring the interpretation and application of national law, which is secondary to Union law, into line with the wording and purpose of Union law (duty of cooperation). For the national courts, this is reflected in their role as European courts in the sense that they ensure the correct application and observance of Community law.

Other Aspects

One particular form of interpretation of national law in accordance with Union law is that of interpretation in accordance with the directives, under which Member States are obliged to implement directives. Legal practitioners and courts must help their Member States to meet this obligation in full by applying the principle of interpretation in accordance with the directives. Interpretation of national law in accordance with the directives ensures that there is conformity with the directives at the level at which law is applied, and thus ensures that national implementing law is interpreted and applied uniformly in all Member States. This prevents matters from being differentiated at national level which have just been harmonised at Union level by means of the directive.

Details

The limits of interpretation of national law in line with Community law are in the unambiguous wording of a national law which is not open to interpretation; even though there is an obligation under Community law to interpret national law in line with Union law, national law may not be interpreted ‘contra legem’. This also applies in cases where the national legislator explicitly refuses to transpose a directive into national law. A resulting conflict between Union law and national law can be resolved only by means of proceedings against the Member State concerned for failure to fulfil obligations under the Treaty (Articles 258 and 259 TFEU).