The Implementation and Enforcement of European Union Law in Small Member States

The objective of this book is to examine how the legal order of Malta, the EU's smallest Member State, manages to cope with the obligations of the EU's acquis commu­nautaire. As far as the legal obligations are concerned, size does not matter. Smaller Member States have the same obligations as the largest, yet they have to meet these same obligations with very fewer resources. This book examines how the Maltese legal system manages to fulfil its obligations both in terms of the supremacy of EU law, as well as how the substantive EU law is transposed and implemented. It also explores how Maltese courts look at EU law and how they manage, or not manage, to enforce it within the context of national law. It can serve as a model to demonstrate how EU law is being implemented in the small­est Member State and can serve as a basis to study the effectiveness of EU law into the domestic law of its Member States in general.

Ivan Sammut is Head of Department of European and Comparative Law, and Deputy Dean within the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta, Malta. 

Jelena Agranovska is Lecturer in European and Comparative Law within the Faculty of Laws, University of Malta, Malta.