The law of accession of states to the European Communities: The case of the Hellenic Republic

Stewart, William Jeffrey McMillan (1983) The law of accession of states to the European Communities: The case of the Hellenic Republic. LL.M(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The thesis examines the accession of the Hellenic Republic to the European Communities on January 1st 1981 and compares it with the accession of the United Kingdom, Denmark and Eire on January 1st 1973 to determine the contribution of law to the enlargement process and to appraisee its quality as a Law of accession, While for reasons of space the thesis had to be selective, the whole history of enlargement has been considered from the important Association "with a view to membership," with Greece in 1961 to the present. The proposed accessions of Spain and Portugal are mentioned only by way of illustration. We consider the forces that motivate enlargement and the impact of enlargement to assess the extent to which law can control non-legal factors, We look at national law, international law, and community law and the underlying assumption that the function of law in the communities is to promote the goal of European integration or at least to advance the wider aims of the Preamble off the E.E.C. Treaty, This thesis reflects the opinion that it is impossible, when studying a dynamic system such as the Community, to refrain from commenting on the successes and failures of the integration process in the hope of offering possible solutions to problems of the accession method by indicating how changes could be made in the law and practice of accession. In assessing the impact of the law of accession the thesis examines the institutions, to see how they have been affected by the exercise both directly and consequentially. A selection of Community policies are looked at to see what kind of effect accession may have. We have felt compelled to explore the problem of withdrawal from the Communities and the related difficulty of re-negotiation; these represent an antithesis of enlargement. Such a study might lead to a broader understanding of accession as a legal process. Finally, in the conclusions, we apply the understanding gained in the main body of the thesis of the scope and effect of the law of accession and the relative practice, to the problems we have identified. We then suggest changes to the established accession procedure by taking an overall approach trying to avoid the retrograde effect that the present method seems to have.

• Item Type: Thesis (LL.M(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Adviser: W H Balekjian
• Keywords: European studies, International law
• Date of Award: 1983
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1983-73246
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 14 Jun 2019 08:56
• Last Modified: 14 Jun 2019 08:56
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/73246