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The great innovation of the European Communities in comparison with previous attempts at European unification lies in the fact that the Community uses only the rule of law to achieve that end.
The six founding Member States, aware that unification, if it was to have any chance of lasting success, must be achieved and maintained through legal means, determined that the European Communities should be conceived in a legal instrument - the Treaties of Paris and Rome.
Not only is the Community a creature of the law, but it pursues its aims exclusively through a new body of law, Community law, which is independent, uniform in all the Member States of the Community, separate from, yet superior to national law, and many of whose provisions are directly applicable in all the Member States.
Like any true legal system the Community legal system needs an effective system of judicial safeguards when Community law is challenged or must be applied.
The Court of Justice, as the judicial institution of the Community, is the backbone of that system of safeguards. Its judges must ensure that Community law is not interpreted and applied differently in each Member State, that as a shared legal system it remains a Community system and that it is always identical for all in all circumstances.
In order to fulfil that role, the Court of Justice has jurisdiction to hear disputes to which the Member States, the Community institutions, undertakings and individuals may be parties.
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