Community law in the national legal order: a systems analysis

Within an emerging global system of law national legal orders are just one dimension of a world-wide network of legal communications. The Community as a legal order dependent on the Member States for its creation and implementation of its norms shores up the state in this increasingly global and fragmented system. Although this interdependency facilitates the implementation of Community norms, difficulties remain because of the different characteristics of competence, territory and time between the legal orders. More fundamentally, the strength of the links between existing law and social processes may inhibit and refract the introduction of Community norms.