European law, International Law and european regulatory compliance

Although EU law may be regarded as a specific form of international law, the main body of EU law has some particular features which usually do not appear in international law: in particular, citizens can invoke rights guaranteed by EU law before courts in the EU Member States, whereas international law usually needs to be transposed into national law before citizens can plead it.

Also, EU law often prevails over the law of the EU Member States. This is why both European and International Law should be contemplated.

International law can mainly be found in international agreements or conventions, in addition to a set of commonly recognized values, standards and principles, which do not necessarily have to be explicitly referred to in an agreement.

International agreements can be bilateral (i.e. between two sovereign states) or multilateral (i.e. between more than two states). Very often, they are prepared and negotiated within an international organization such as the United Nations (UN), the Council of Europe and many others. An important source of international law is also the case law of international courts.

More specifically on European and International Law, A-LAW lawyers have experience in matters of:

• Belgium, Europe and international market access audit
• Regulatory compliance
• Comparative overview of conventions signed between Belgium, EU and the target country
• EU regulatory framework, directives and regulations
• Assessment of the transposed model in the EU member state under review
• Free trade agreements and possible trade barriers, tariff and non-tariff  (see also our services and specialisations on investments)
• Belgian and EU competition legal framework
• Assessment of International conventions applicable to the matter under review
• Conflicts of law
• Dispute resolution, mediation, arbitration, litigation

See also the aspects of corporate, business and economics, tax and finance, labor and employment, accounting, logistics, intellectual property and so on.