Implications of the Community law in Switzerland

The ”absorption” of Community law into the Swiss legal order can appear in different forms. On the one hand, we can distinguish between three cases of ”direct” europeisation of Swiss law: the reception of Community law by the means of international public law treaties (taking the bilateral agreements concluded with the European Community as an example), the autonomous reception of Community law with the purpose of rendering the Swiss legislative acts euro-compatible, and finally, the taking into account of European law in the capacity of a source of inspiration in the frame of a comparative law approach. On the other hand, an ”indirect harmonisation” of the Community and Swiss legal orders is initiated by the conclusion of international multilateral treaties, for example with the Convention of Aarhus. These different forms of rapprochement of the two aforesaid legal orders have allowed to draw up a framework in which Swiss environmental law has been able to be influenced by Community environmental law, by at the same time allowing the Swiss environmental policy to conserve its particularities.