Legal Acts and Hierarchy of Norms in EU Law

This chapter focuses on the post-Lisbon legal instruments of the EU and the formal categorization and hierarchy of norms established by the Treaty of Lisbon. After a brief overview of the history and the rationale behind the creation of a hierarchical relationship between the legal acts of the Union, a detailed analysis of legislative, delegated and implementing acts and the related legal issues is provided. In addition, one section is devoted to non-legislative acts adopted directly on the basis of the Treaty—a category of act which appeared in the Constitutional Treaty but did not make its way into the Treaty of Lisbon. Lastly, the realization of the objectives behind the ranking of norms is discussed.