Direct effect of EU law


Produced in partnership with Laura Bolado of Andes Legal Consulting Ltd
Practice notes

Direct effect of EU law


Produced in partnership with Laura Bolado of Andes Legal Consulting Ltd

Practice notes
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What is direct effect of EU law?

The doctrine of direct effect is a fundamental principle of EU law developed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Van Gend en Loos. It is a mechanism through which individuals can enforce rights in Member States’ courts, based on EU law—a remedy against non-compliance with EU law.

In Van Gend en Loos, the provision of EU law at issue was an article of an EU Treaty, ie primary law. The transport company Van Gend & Loos had imported goods from Germany into the Netherlands and had to pay customs duties which it considered incompatible with Article 12 EEC Treaty (now Article 30 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)), which prohibits increases in customs duties in trade between Member States. The preliminary ruling was focused on the conflict between national law and the provisions of the Treaty. The Court of Justice answered the question referred by a Netherlands court by establishing the principle of direct

Laura Bolado
Laura Bolado

EU Law Specialist, Andes Legal Consulting Ltd

Laura has worked in EU law for nearly two decades that is, to date, her main area of expertise. In 2002 she worked for the European Commission (Brussels) and relocated to London in 2003 to work for the European Medicines Agency. There she gained first-hand experience on the functioning of the EU which she later applied in legal roles at pharmaceutical companies and law firms before turning to a more generalist approach to EU law at ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû. At ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû she helped develop and maintain EU Tracker (writing on the implementation of EU Directives in different EU jurisdictions, etc.) and assisted various departments with EU law matters in her EU Law Specialist capacity. Laura also delivered EU law training to several interns and legal professionals. Laura left ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû in late 2013 to explore her options in different environments. In 2014 Laura lectured EU law at universities in Argentina, spoke at international conferences and continued with her contributions to national legal publications (Rubinzal and Abeledo Perrot/Thomson Reuters) in EU and Integration law. Laura became an author for PSL Public Law in October 2014. Since returning to London in 2015 she runs her own business which includes regular contributions to PSL Environment, Energy and Public Law. From 2017 until 2020 Laura authored the Europe chapter of ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû Civil Court Practice (Green Book). Since 2019 Laura also contributes to Reg-Track writing on financial services, data protection, money laundering, environmental and social governance, etc. in several jurisdictions worldwide.

Education

Laura is a dual-qualified lawyer (Argentina and Spain) with two LLMs in European Law and in Information Technology Law awarded by the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, Spain.

Laura is a data protection professional certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP CIPP/E) also holds an International Compliance Association certificate in Anti-Money Laundering. 

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Jurisdiction(s):
European Union

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