A Critical Analysis of the new Typology of Acts in the Draft Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe

This article describes and critically analyses the proposed new typology of acts in the “draft treaty establishing a constitution for Europe” and its implications for the EU legal system. It comments on the categories of act on the three levels of constitutional law, legislation and implementation. It highlights the importance of the correlation between the catalogue of fundamental rights on one hand and the definition of legislation on the other, which will reform the relation between legislative and executive powers in the Union. The article also uncovers several shortcomings in the proposed typology of acts including the problematic relation between delegated regulations and implementing regulations as well as the lack of adjustment of the proposed system of legal acts to the special nature of the EU.