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The article focuses on the merger of the supranational legal orders co-existing in Europe: those of the European Union (EU) and of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Their merger is prompted by a number of considerations including the argument that there does not seem to exist any credible alternative. The second argument is that with the existence of the EU, there is no need to have to parallel and partly overlapping systems of human rights protection. The incorporation of the European Convention into the Community legal system would have several advantages including the assurance that the EU itself, its Member States as well as non-member countries are governed by a single set of substantive human rights provisions, and would put an end to the dual system of enforcement.

The article discusses two court cases that raised important issues concerning the concept, nature, legal effect and validity of Commission decisions and the legal protection of their addressees. Certain inconsistencies in the case law relating to the concept of actionable Community acts were revealed through a juxtaposition of the two judgments. These cases are referred to as the PVC case from the field of general competition law, and the Air France case, brought under Council Regulation 4064/89 on the control of concentrations between undertakings.