Silver Threads Among the Gold . . . 50 Years of the Free Movement of Goods

The European Community (“EC”) is 50 years old this year, albeit having undergone a change of name and, just to confuse everyone, the articles of the Treaty establishing the European Community (“EC Treaty”) underwent a change in numbering. If the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force, the European Community itself will disappear, being absorbed into the European Union (“EU”), and the present EC Treaty will become the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“FEU”). It is thus appropriate that this issue of the Fordham International Law Journal be devoted to the Golden Anniversary of the European (Economic) Community, and yet this issue may serve as a state of the art assessment of Community law on the possible eve of the disappearance of the very body which is the subject of this celebration. However, the subject of this contribution, the present Articles 28-30 EC, will be renumbered, but otherwise remain intact, to become Articles 34-36 FEU.