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26 J. Common Mkt. Stud. 1 (1987-1988)

handle is hein.journals/jcmks26 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Common Market Studies Volume XXVI, No. I September 1987 0021-9886 $3.00 The European Community: a Union of States without unity of government CHRISTOPHER BREWIN University of Keele La diplomatie, sous des conventions de forme, ne connait que les rdalites. General de Gaulle, Mimoires deguerre, vol 2, chapter 6. The development of the European Community into the world's largest trader has forced third parties to treat with it as an important actor in its own right. Yet it is plainly not a sovereign state. Therefore the Commission, the Member States and third states have all assumed that its formal status is that of an international organization. Their diplomats have had to get around the difficulties of recognition, participation, ratification and implementation consequent on this status. My purpose in this article is to argue that the European Community is now better conceptualized as a union of states rather than as an organiz- ation. The international law doctrine that actors are either states or organizations has become unrealistic. Not only does it cause unnecessary practical difficulties, it is conceptually misleading in implying that the Community has an inferior status as a negotiator. It may also impoverish the development of the Community unless an alternative concept is received, as can be illustrated by the history ofCommunity law. The development of Community law would have been crippled if the international law approach had not been defeated in the van Gend case of 1962. In that decision the Court ofJustice established that Community law within its sphere is equal in status to national law. Further, the Court has successfully maintained that, because law should be uniform, Community law must take precedence over conflicting national law. This decision did not transform Community law into federal law because Community legislation suffers from the defect that its statutes are not legitimized by a democratic legislature. They are law in that the governments of democratic

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