Most of the developed states are aware of what public service is through facts. But only a few of them have come up with a legal definition of what it really is. In French Administrative law, the notion of public service has never been and will never be easily displayed. Major academics are still contemplating and discussing to formulate the right legal definition of ?public service'. Following the EC treaty of Rome and especially the Maastricht Treaty, the concept of ?public service' appeared in the European law. As it is shown in the C-188/89 Foster and others v British Gas plc case, member states have generated a definition for ?European Public Service'. The aim of this article is to show how the ECJ is influenced by French administrative law while formulating new legal concepts. Firstly a brief summary with respect to the decision is made (A). Then we will expose the French version of the Public Service (B). And finally we will see how useful the French law is for the ECJ when a theological issue has to be dealt with (C).
[...] We have just seen that the concept of ‘Public Service' has been exported from the French Conseil d'Etat Case Law. But other French legal concepts are used by the ECJ as well. For instance, concerning the Article 234(3) (ex-177(3)) about obligation to refer to ECJ for preliminary rulings8 has given the ECJ another opportunity to use a French Legal Concept : The théorie de l'acte clair. In the CILFIT9 case, ECJ ruled that : third paragraph of article 177 of the EEC Treaty must be interpreted as meaning that a Court or Tribunal against whose decisions there is no judicial remedy under national law is required, where a question of Community Law is raised before it, to comply with its obligation to bring the matter before the Court of Justice, unless it has been established that the question raised is irrelevant or that the Community provision in question has already been interpreted by the Court of Justice or that the correct application of Community Law is so obvious as to leave no scope for any reasonable doubt. [...]
[...] But the French public Law influence does not limit itself to European Law. For instance in Belgian public Law definition of 'Public Service' is also an exact reproduction of the French definition11 : ' Thus Public Service is a body created and controlled by the governments to lead the way to satisfy a collective need 12'. To sum up we can affirm that Community Law is influenced by French legal concepts, and that Foster case is a good example of this argument, but would it create difficulties while everyone is talking about unification of Community Law ? [...]
[...] The aim of this article is to show how the ECJ is influenced by French administrative law when discovering new legal concepts. We will first make a brief summary of the context of the decision Then we will expose the French version of the Public Service And finally we will see how useful is French law for the ECJ when facing a theological issue A. Vertical direct effect, an answer to interdiction of horizontal direct effect In the Van Gend en Loos case1 the Court for the first time determined that a Treaty provision had direct effect in the national courts. [...]
[...] British Gas plc: A European mirror of the French Public Service? Introduction Most of the developed states know about public service in facts. But only a few of them made a legal definition of what it really is. In French Administrative law the notion of public service has never been and will never be easily displayed. Major academics are still fighting nowadays to create the right legal definition of public service. Following the EC treaty of Rome and especially the Maastricht Treaty, the idea of public service appeared in European law. [...]
[...] This illustrates a constant practise, which has been used by the Court even before it has been created. C. French legal practise, a salvation for the ECJ It is not the first time that French public Law gives the ECJ help for sorting out such difficult issues. The first influence of French administrative Law lies in a procedural aspect : the procedure attached to the European Court of Justice is a perfect layer of the French procedure enforced at the Conseil d'Etat. [...]
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