Darren Harvey

This Practice Note explains how EU Directives can be challenged directly (by action for annulment) and indirectly (by preliminary ruling and by incidental review), together with an overview of the remedies available.

This Practice Note examines the EU law principles of equivalence (the prohibition of discrimination between claims based on national and EU law) and effectiveness (the prohibition of national laws overriding EU rights). Equivalence and effectiveness are principles that have found legal basis in case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. This Practice Note highlights key case law examples to illustrate the operation of these principles.

This Practice Note outlines the sources of EU competence, gradual expansion of the competences, and implied powers. All EU acts require a legal basis for their adoption. This Practice Note considers this principle, as well as the governing principles of EU competences including the principles of conferral, subsidiarity and proportionality.

This Practice Note examines the free movement rights of workers and citizens in the EU. Economically active persons may exercise free movement rights under Article 45 TFEU on the free movement of workers, Article 49 TFEU on the freedom of establishment, and also Article 56 TFEU on free movement of services. EU citizens are however not required to be economically active in order to be entitled to move and reside freely within the EU. Article 21 TFEU allows all EU citizens, including those who are economically inactive, to enjoy the right to move freely between Member States by virtue of their status as citizens of the EU. However, as this Practice Note explores, access of economically inactive migrants to social rights is more limited than it is for economically active migrants.

This Practice Note examines the principle of harmonisation, which is a fundamental principle for the EU Internal Market. It examines the various types of harmonisation employed by the EU to regulate trade across Member States, using case law to illustrate the principle in operation.

This Practice Note considers the nature of the proportionality test and its application in cases both against EU Member States and against the EU. A key principle of continental law, proportionality can be invoked against the EU and its Member States and should be borne in mind when drafting measures at EU level and national level (in areas of EU law).

This Practice Note examines the four freedoms underpinning the EU Internal Market, that is: free movement of goods, free movement of services, freedom of establishment and free movement of capital. It outlines the scope of the relevant provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and considers their interpretation by the Court of Justice of the European Union.