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10 January 2008 / Seamus Burns
Issue: 7303 / Categories: Features , EU
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An incoming tide

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Seamus Burns explores the tidal wave of EU reform

Lord Denning once famously likened the impact of EU law, which originated under the aegis of the Treaty of Rome 1957, to an incoming tide flowing up the UK legal system, and incontrovertibly having a profound impact on the sovereignty of Westminster (see Bulmer (HP) Ltd v J Bollinger SA [1974] Ch 401 at 418–19).

If he were surveying the legal horizon today in the light of the Treaty of Lisbon (the reform treaty), and casting his judicial eyes over the past 33 years, he might have to revise his image of EU law being like an incoming tide permeating our existing legal order, and more realistically compare it to a tsunami, enveloping everything in its path with irresistible force.

UNION OF MEMBER STATES

The reform treaty, signed by the prime minister, Gordon Brown, on 13 December 2007 amends the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty establishing the European Community, ie the Treaty of Rome 1957, which created the EEC, the precursor of

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