Lisbon and laws re: drugs, prostitution, intellectual property rights etc.

Herbal Deity wrote: »

Quick question. What effect would the enactment of the Treaty of Lisbon have on the ability of member states to pass experimental or non-conforming laws in somewhat controversial areas such as drugs, prostitution, intellectual property rights etc.?

For example, could Ireland just decide to legalize/decriminalize prostitution or cannabis on her own, without violating any EU agreement? If no, would this only be due to the Lisbon treaty, or are there already measures in place to make this difficult for an EU member to do?

I suppose a more general way to put this question would be what standards of morality in terms of laws does the EU require of its member states, and does this change with Lisbon at all?

In the whole area of social policy, the EU only really has supporting competence, which means that member states are entirely free to make changes such as criminalisation/decriminalisation of prostitution, drugs, etc. That's the case now and after Lisbon - the Charter, which some might worry about here, only applies to EU legislation. If Ireland wanted to decriminalise cannabis, as Portugal recently has, there's nothing stopping it.

The right to legislate on public morality and criminality is seen as a major determinant of the unique identity of a nation, and therefore unlikely to ever become an EU competence - this is noted again in the recent German constitutional judgement.

Intellectual property, on the other hand, is something that the member states have decided to organise in common:

Article 118 TFEU Lisbon

In the context of the establishment and functioning of the internal market, the European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, shall establish measures for the creation of European intellectual property rights to provide uniform protection of intellectual property rights throughout the Union and for the setting up of centralised Union-wide authorisation, coordination and supervision arrangements. The Council, acting in accordance with a special legislative procedure, shall by means of regulations establish language arrangements for the European intellectual property rights. The Council shall act unanimously after consulting the European Parliament.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Herbal Deity wrote: »

Thanks.

I did know about the intellectual property rights article, and tbh I really don't like it.

Not enough to sway me to a No this time though.

I know what you mean, but between the fact that most of the Oireachtas have no grasp of the first word of 'intellectual property' and far too strong a grasp of the second, and the huge sway that MNCs with very strong views on IP have here, I wouldn't hold out much hope for a better result out of the Oireachtas than the EU.

cordially,
Scofflaw