The Legal Powers Of The European Central Bank

The European Central Bank was set up in 1998 according to the Maastricht Treaty. In the light of the foundational treaty of the European Union(EU), the European Central Bank became the core institution of the European Central Bank System and the core financial institution of the European Union. It plays an important role in the European Structure System, and meantime, the legal powers of the European Central Bank has far reaching meaning to each member state of EU and the EU itself. However, there are many types of research on the powers of the European Central Bank from the perspective of economics, while much less from the perspective of law.After the financial storm exploded, the European Central Bank started the OMT Project which was a measure of purchasing the bond of member states. This measure led to an intensive controversy in the internal system of the European Central Bank and international communities. The related problems about the legal powers of the European Central Bank, therefore, became a hot research issue in the field of international law. Hence, researches are expended on the issues of the powers of the European Central Bank from the perspective of law in this paper, and some controversial problems in the legal field of the European Central Bank are emphatically studied as well.The legal powers of the European Central Bank is studied in this paper from four different perspectives(the definition of the legal powers of the European Central Bank, the classification of the legal powers of the European Central Bank, the enforcement of the legal powers of the European Central Bank and the legal validate of the legal powers of the European Central Bank respectively). By using the method of case studying, typical cases tried by the European Court and involved in European Central Bank are analyzed. And on the basis, the problems about ultra vires of European Central Bank and the capacity as a subject of charging European Central Bank are discussing as well. The relationship between supervision powers and monetary authority powers is studied through using a comparative research method in discussing of the powers of Central Bank in the international circumstance. The conclusion that non-contradictory relationship between legal powers and agreement powers as well as that the powers of European Central bank should belong to legal power can be gained through using a comparative research method in comparing the components of legal powers and agreement powers of European Central Bank. The financial conflicts occurring in powers execution of European Central Bank is assessed through using research method of legal economics. By using the methods mentioned above, the research framework of legal powers of European Central Bank is obtained from the perspectives of powers definition, powers content, powers execution, powers examination, and powers effectiveness of European Central bank. In addition, the questions, like accountability problem, that are mainly about the need of additionally regulating legal powers of European Central bank, is proposed.