Page 192 - Секретаријат за законодавство

into national law does not necessarily require its provisions to be repro-
duced verbatim in a speciÞc, express law or regulation; a general legal
context may, depending on the content of the directive in question, be
sufÞcient, provided that it does effectively ensure the full application of
the directive in a sufÞciently clear and precise manner…It is particular-
ly important, in order to satisfy the requirement of legal certainty, that
individuals should have the beneÞt of a clear and precise legal situation
enabling them to ascertain the full extent of their rights and duties and,
27
where appropriate, to rely on them before the national courts”.
It is a general approach to conduct transposition via acts of Parliament
and implementing acts. However, the choice of acts used for transpo-
sition of directives depends on the system of sources of law applicable
in the individual Member State. If provisions of the constitution of a
Member State are in contradiction with the provisions of the directive,
it is necessary to amend the constitution.

“…a Member State cannot rely upon domestic difÞculties or provi-
sions of its national legal system, even its constitutional system, for
the purpose of justifying a failure to comply with obligations and
time-limits contained in Community directives”. 28

Transposition of a directive should be carried out in such a way as to
Þt into the domestic legal order and take into account the legal tradi-
tion of the Member State concerned. Therefore it is advisable to avoid
literal repetition of the wording used in a directive and to use the legal
notions existing in the Member State, if only they precisely reßect the
result sought in the directive.

Particular attention should be paid to deÞnitions laid down in a direc-
tive. In certain cases precise repetition of the wording of the deÞnition
may be necessary. The same is true for terms for which EU law or the
case law of the Court of Justice of EU confer an autonomous meaning;
different from the meaning such terms would normally have in the
legal context of the Member State concerned.

Examples of terms with an autonomous meaning in EU law:

27 Commission v Italian Republic (Case C-49/00) [2001] ECR I-8575.
28 Commission v Kingdom of Belgium (Case 102/79) [1980] ECR 1473.

27