European Law
On 1 July 1973 Ireland became a member of what was then the European Communities. In doing so Ireland was required to accept the supremacy of Community law over Irish law in areas of Community competence. It was therefore necessary to amend the Irish Constitution to reflect this arrangement. There is now a provision which ensures that nothing in the Constitution can prevent Community law from having the force of law in the State. Nor can the Constitution be used to invalidate any national law adopted which was necessitated by membership of the European Union or the Communities.
Community law takes the form of treaty law, judgments of the European Court of Justice and legislation enacted by the Community institutions. The most significant forms of Community legislation are Regulations and Directives. Regulations are automatically applicable within the Member States and in that sense they bypass the normal legislative procedures of the State. Directives are different from Regulations in that they will set out a number of legal requirements that are to be met. However, it is left to each State to decide how it will implement those requirements in its domestic law. In Ireland, Directives are generally implemented by way of secondary legislation. The task of ensuring the implementation of Community law has been entrusted to the European Court of Justice and the Irish Courts are bound by its decisions.