No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Indirect Obligations — Four questions in Respect of EEC Obligations Arising from Rights or Obligations of others
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2009
Extract
Most international treaties create legal rules applicable only between the States concerned; individuals are not involved. The few treaties which do contain rights or duties for the inhabitants of States only rarely grant such rights or impose such duties in unequivocal terms. Instead of providing that citizens have a right, for example, to freedom of trade, the treaties provide that the State must grant such freedom of trade to its citizens. In other words: the right of the citizen is drafted as an obligation of his State. In practice such an indirect way of drafting often leads to questions: are specific obligations, imposed upon States, meant to create rights which individuals can invoke in court, or are they not? The question is, whether the treaty provisions concerned have full effect not only on those to whom they are directly addressed, but also on others, whom they reach only indirectly, namely through the obligation of the addressee. Words often develop mysteriously and thus the full effect on an indirect addressee is termed “direct effect”. This expression should be understood as meaning that the effect on the indirect addressee is as full as that on the direct addressee.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 1977
References
1. Tammes, A.J.P., “Een ieder verbindende verdragsbepalingen”, Nederlands Juristenblad 1962, pp. 69–80 and 89–99Google Scholar; Idem, “Art. 65 van de Grondwet opnieuw bezocht”, Nederlands Juristenblad 1964, pp. 597–602.Google Scholar
2. See Schermers, Henry G., Judicial Protection in the European Communities (Deventer: Kluwer, 1976), para 175–192Google Scholar; Bleckmann, A., “L'effet direct des normes et décisions de droit europeen” in: Les recours des individus devant les instances nationales en cas de violation du droit européenGoogle Scholar, Colloque Bruxelles, 24 et 25 avril 1975; Waelbroeck, Michel, “L'immédiateté communautaire, caractéristique de la supranationalité: quelques conséquences pour la pratique”, Le droit international demain. Neuchâtel 1974Google Scholar (25th Congres of the AAA); Winter, J.A., “Direct Applicability and Direct Effect; Two Distinct and Different Concepts in Community Law”, 9 CMLRev (1972) pp. 425–439.Google Scholar
3. Hamson, C.J., Q.C., “Methods of Interpretation – A critical Assessment of the Results”, Report to the Judicial and Academic Conference, Luxembourg, 27 09 1976.Google Scholar
4. Constitution of the Netherlands, Art. 65.
5. Nederlands Juristenblad 1962, p. 71.Google Scholar
6. Nederlands Juristenblad 1962, p. 75 (my translation H.G.S.)Google Scholar
7. Van Genden Loos Case (26/62), 5 02 1963, [1963] ECR 1, at 12.Google Scholar
8. Idem p. 13.
9. Plaumann Case (25/62), 15 07 1963, [1963] ECR 95, at 106.Google Scholar
10. First Lütticke Case (57/65), 16 06 1966, [1966] ECR 205.Google Scholar
11. Mölkerei-Zentrale Case (28/67), 3 04 1968, [1968] ECR 143, at 152.Google Scholar
12. Walrave Case (36/74), 12 12 1974, considerations 8, 14–19, 25, [1974] ECR 1405, at 1418, 1419.Google Scholar
13. Cagnon Case (69/74), 18 02 1975, considerations 7–10, [1975] ECR 171, at 175, 176.Google Scholar
14. Second Defrenne Case (43/75), 8 04 1966, considerations 24, 30, 31, 39 and dictum 1.Google Scholar