Europe iiber alles
From Andrew Mitchell Sir: Daniel Hannan, writing about the European Constitution (`The way ahead for Europe', 26 June), states that he cannot remember anyone saying that EC law would have primacy when the UK gained EC membership in 1973 and that this primacy has never been contained in a treaty. He is wrong on both counts. The loss of sovereignty was a significant issue at the time — indeed, it prompted a high-profile legal case brought by the constitutional campaigner, Raymond Blackburn, against the AttorneyGeneral — and statements as to the primacy of EC law were included in section two of the European Communities Act 1972 and the then Article 5 (now 10) of the EC Treaty. Since then the House of Lords has explicitly recognised the impact of EC law on UK sovereignty by accepting, for example, that EC law prevailed over the Merchant Shipping Act during the Factortame litigation of the early Nineties.
Therefore whatever the Court of Appeal might subsequently have said in the case of Steve Thobum. the 'Metric Martyr', is of little consequence in terms of precedent. In this aspect of legal primacy, then, it is fair to say that the European constitution is a 'tidying-up exercise'.
Andrew Mitchell
London NW9
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