COMMUNITY LAW
Application by the United Kingdom Parliament
20. If this country became a member of the European Communities it would be accepting Community law. By "Community law" is meant the whole body of legal rights and obligations deriving from the Treaties or their instruments, whether conferred or imposed on the Member States, on individuals or undertakings, or on the Community institutions. A substantial body of legislation would be required to enable us to accept the law.
21. In the first place provision would have to be made for those matters on which the Treaties leave the necessary legislation to be passed by Member States, for example, in the fields of customs duties, agriculture and transport. For this purpose complex legislation would be needed immediately on joining the Communities; and further legislation would be needed from time to time to give effect to subsequent Community instruments. Legislation of this character poses no new problem. The necessary provisions would be enacted by Parliament, or possibly by delegated legislation issued under Parliamentary authority which could cover future as well as present Community instruments.
22. Secondly, it would be necessary to pass legislation giving the force of law to those provisions of the Treaties and Community instruments which are intended to take direct internal effect within the Member States. This legislation would be needed, because, under our constitutional law, adherence to a treaty does not of itself have the effect of changing our internal law even where provisions of the treaty are intended to have direct internal effect as law within the participating States. The legislation would have to cover both provisions in force when we joined and those coming into force subsequently as a result of instruments issued by the Community institutions. No new problem would be created by the provisions which were in force at the time we became a member of the Communities. The constitutional innovation would lie in the acceptance in advance as part of the law of the United Kingdom of provisions to be made in the future by instruments issued by the Community institutions—a situation for which there is no precedent in this country. However, these instruments, like ordinary delegated legislation, would derive their force under the law of the United Kingdom from the original enactment passed by Parliament.
Impact on United Kingdom Law
23. The Community law having direct internal effect is designed to take precedence over the domestic law of the Member States. From this it follows that the legislation of the Parliament of the United Kingdom giving effect to that law would have to do so in such a way as to override existing national law so far as inconsistent with it. This result need not be left to implication, and it would be open to Parliament to enact from time to time any necessary consequential amendments or repeals. It would also follow that within the fields occupied by the Community law Parliament would have to refrain from passing fresh legislation inconsistent with that law as for the time being in force. This would not however involve any constitutional innovation. Many of our treaty obligations already impose such restraints-for example, the Charter of the United Nations, the European Convention on Human Rights and GATT.
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