European Law
1973年7月爱尔兰加入了欧盟，当时该组织被称之为欧洲共同体。成为欧盟成员国之后，欧盟要求爱尔兰的本国法在共同体权限范围内服从共同体法。为此，爱尔兰需要修正其宪法以表示这一协议的实施。爱尔兰法中现在有一项条款规定在本国宪法中没有任何条款可以阻止共同体法在爱尔兰的法律实施。对于作为欧盟成员国国家的需要所通过的国家法律，宪法也无权使其无效。
On 1 July 1973 Ireland became a member of what was then the European Communities. In doing so Ireland was required to accept the supremacy of Communitylaw over Irish law in areas of Community competence. It was therefore necessary to amend the Irish Constitution to reflect this arrangement. There is now a provision which ensures that nothing in the Constitution can prevent Community law from having the force of law in the State. Nor can the Constitution be used to invalidateany national law adopted which was necessitated by membership of the European Union or the Communities.
共同体法包括条约法及共同体各机构通过的欧洲司法和立法院的判决。立法较为重要的是形式是法规和指令.法规适用于各成员国，它绕过了各国正常的立法程序。指令与法规不同，它对成员国提出一些法律要求，但如何满足这些要求，则由各国按照本国的法律自行决定。在爱尔兰，指令通常是通过二级立法来实施。欧洲法院和爱尔兰法院受委托共同监督并确保共同体法的实施。
Community law takes the form of treaty law, judgments of the European Courtof Justice and legislation enacted by the Community institutions. The most significant forms of Community legislation are Regulations and Directives. Regulations are automatically applicable within the Member States and in that sense they bypass the normal legislative procedures of the State. Directives are different from Regulations in that they will set out a number of legal requirements that are to be met. However, it is left to each State to decide how it will implement those requirements in itsdomestic law. In Ireland, Directives are generally implemented by way of secondary legislation. The task of ensuring the implementation of Community law has been entrusted to the European Court of Justice and the Irish Courts are bound by its decisions.