ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book sets out the basis of the Community’s competence to adopt directives, the legislative processes that have to be followed for their adoption, the legal formalities with which they have to comply and the substantive legal principles that they have to observe. There follows an account of the procedures that have to be followed, and the conditions that have to be satisfied, if the validity of a directive is to be challenged either directly, before the European Court of Justice, or indirectly, via a national court. The book is concerned with the legal effects of directives. It sets out the persons on whom, the period for which, and the territories over which directives create obligations. The book is also concerned with how directives and the domestic legislation which implements them are to be interpreted.
