Harmonisation of Law

Harmonisation of law means “make or form a pleasing or consistent whole”. In the case of harmonisation of law, the aim is to make a consistent whole of law. It is an important concept in the European Union for creating common standards across the internal market.

It is a process of admitting limits of international unification but does not necessarily mean total uniformity. Harmonisation is usually not comprehensive but is relatively partial. That is, harmonisation of law doesn’t seek to create a sole authority of law on a particular subject. This is because measures to harmonise law cannot go further than that which is necessary. Harmonisation is unsystematic. The Directives of the European Union do not focus on or contain comprehensive regulation of the entire law. The Directives regulate some very specific issues and they regulate them only for particular situations or circumstances and only for particular types of parties.

Harmonisation generally takes place on two levels of governance, the overarching body and the each of the members individually. Taking the European Union, the two levels are the European level and national level. Although both European and national legislators share the legislative responsibilities, neither of these bodies has final responsibility for the whole. Also, there is no superior political authority which has the final say on who is responsible for what, i.e. no overarching authority over the European and national legislators. The European Court of Justice may however determine the extent of harmonisation when determining cases.

Harmonisation can be seen as a step towards unification of European Union Law.