European Union Law/Sources, principles and supremacy

Jurisdiction
The ECJ was quick to stamp its authority in a series of cases clarifying the position of the different types of legislation made by the institutions of the European Community.

The first case was Van Gend en Loos which established that EC law is supreme over existing Dutch law.


 * Costa v. ENEL
 * New conflicting national legislation made after EC law could not override EC law.


 * Internationalle Handelgesellschaft
 * EC law prevailed even over conflicting constitutional law. In this case it was German Basic Law, note that the German Administrative Court ignored the ECJ's ruling.


 * Simmenthal Spa
 * Conflicting national law could be disapplied immediately without waiting for it to be repealed.