The law of the European Union is the general term of the legal norms that regulate various relationships that occur in the process of the establishment and internal and external relations activities of the European Union.

The legal characteristics of EU law have the following characteristics:

Supranationality: The basic legal characteristic of EU law

The EU is not a state and does not have state apparatuses such as the military and the police. Its existence and functioning all rely on the EU legal system, and law is the basic guarantee of the EU. For EU law to play its due role, it is necessary to ensure the supranationality of EU law, which is the requirement of the EU legal system and the foundation of the European Union. The supranationality of EU law is manifested in two aspects: one is that EU law is directly applicable in member states; the other is that EU law has priority over member state laws.

Limitations: Another legal characteristic of EU law

First of all, the adjustment scope of EU law has obvious limitations, and the basic treaties have strict limitations on the powers granted to the EU. Unlike sovereign states, the EU only has some of the powers transferred by member states and can only exercise these powers within the scope limited by the treaties. Sovereign states can also withdraw from the union and take back the powers transferred to the EU. Therefore, the EU has jurisdiction only within a limited range, and EU law mainly adjusts the economic and monetary union relations and the social relations related to the economic and monetary union. In terms of a country's legal system, what EU law regulates is only a part.

Secondly, the EU does not have the autonomy to formulate EU law. The basic treaties for creating the EU take the consent of the contracting states as the effective premise, and all secondary legislations of the EU need to be based on the basic treaties and respect the sovereignty of the member states and cannot ignore the will of the member state governments. The contracting states transfer some sovereign powers to the EU, which is essentially to exercise these powers through the EU partnership. The EU is not, and cannot be, a true sovereign entity and cannot truly be above the member states. To formulate an EU regulation, although it starts with the initiative of the EU Commission and is assisted by the European Parliament through the "common decision-making procedure", it ultimately has to be passed by the vote of the Council of Ministers that reflects the will of the member states to take effect.

Again, from the perspective of the entry into force and implementation of EU law, the EU lacks subordinate institutions to exercise its power and has great dependence on the relevant institutions of the member states. After the European Court of Justice and its subordinate Court of First Instance accept disputes, they only make rulings on the disputes, and the implementation of the rulings is left to the relevant institutions of the member states to be responsible for. In this way, the provisions of the national laws of the member states regarding civil procedures and remedies directly affect the implementation of the rulings of the European Court of Justice. As is well known, the member states of the EU belong to different legal systems, and the legal traditions and legal systems of various countries are not the same, which makes it difficult to ensure the consistent implementation of EU law in all member states. The EU Commission has no subordinate institutions, and after many EU policies are passed, it can only instruct the administrative authorities of the member states to implement them.

Finally, EU law lacks effective direct sanctions against lawbreakers and lacks authority. The founders of the EU seemed to deliberately avoid the issue of sanctions against member states for violating Community regulations in the basic treaties. Articles 169 and 170 of the Treaty of the European Economic Community stipulate that the EEC cannot require the latter to execute the ruling, but can only adopt the approach of allowing the aggrieved countries to retaliate collectively. For sanctions against private individuals for violating the EU, generally only fines are imposed, and they are also executed by the authorities of the member states. If the authorities of a member state refuse to execute, although it means that the member state has violated the treaty obligation, there are also no sanctions.

To sum up, EU law (also known as European law) is a set of unprecedented, very unique and complex legal systems. It is closely related to traditional international law and domestic law, but it is neither general international law nor a kind of national law, because it is not only applicable to adjusting the relationships between member states, but also directly applicable to the citizens and legal persons of member states. EU law constitutes a "new legal order", and it cannot simply classify EU law into an existing traditional legal department. Since the foundation and core of EU law are the various basic legal documents such as the "Treaty of the European Communities" and the "Treaty of the European Union", EU law can be summarized as: based on and centered around the various basic legal documents such as the "Treaty of the European Communities" and the "Treaty of the European Union", including other treaties related to the amendment, supplementation and implementation of the "Treaty of the European Communities" and the "Treaty of the European Union", the legislation of EU institutions, the generally recognized legal principles recognized by the European Community and the judicial legislation of the European Court of Justice, aiming to adjust certain internal and external social relationships of the European Union, being both a part of the domestic law of its member states and constituting its own independent, new legal system and legal norms in general.