Résumé
Contemporary European law forms a sui generis system, which its jurisconsults distinguish both from legislation enacted by Nation States and from international agreements to which Nation States subscribe. By contrast with either of these, it is closer in nature – if not in word, the term avoided – to a supranational constitution binding the member States of the Union together in a single polity. Looking at the role of the European Court of Justice created by the Treaty of Rome in subsequent interpretations of it, the second lecture considers how far this conception corresponds to the Treaty or to the intentions of its signatories, and asks what light recent challenges to the Court’s decisions throw on the form of the European Union as a whole.
