유럽연합의 초국가성과 그로 인한 법적인 결과

The word “supranationality” comes from Latin and means “supranational”. You often hear about supranationality when talking about large international organizations such as the European Union (EU), the African Union (AU) or the Organization of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). These are international organizations whose special feature is that the member states voluntarily give up part of their sovereignty. These states transfer some of their sovereign rights to the supranational organization. States that become members of supranational organizations voluntarily restrict their self-determination. They do this because they hope that, together with the other member states, they will come to better political decisions than they would be able to make alone. How supranationality works can be seen in the EU. The EU Commission is largely independent of the requirements of the EU member states. It has the overall interest of the EU (i.e. “supranational”) in mind, not the interests of individual countries (these are “national”). The rules and laws of the community also apply supranationally. The EU member states must therefore adhere to EU laws.