Umpiring the System: European Court of Justice
● Definition
ECoJ (European Court of Justice)
CoFI (Court of First Instance)
In
Involved in the business of clarifying the meaning of European law.
Making sure that law is consistent across national boundaries.
Supreme Legal Authority of EU, final court of appeal on all EU laws.
● Practical
EU law has precedence over national laws in areas where the two conflict. Excludes family law and more importantly criminal law.
COSTA vs. ENEL ’64- confirmed the primacy of EU law
CASSIS DE DIJON ’79 simplified completion of the single market, by establishing the principle of mutual recognition
● Logistics
25 judges- 6 year renewable term
Terms staggered
Appointed by common agreement among the governments of the member states.
President of judges- internally elected.
Responsible for- distributing cases. Considerable influence of political direction of the court
Majority vote. Court no direct powers to enforce its judgement. Implementation left to the national courts.
● Expansion
In the 1960’s the court was addressing 50 cases per year. Risen ten fold to the 600 it sees’ a year now.
Court divided into Chambers- allow see more cases.
Judges assisted by 8 Advocates-General Advisors.
1989 important date. Creation COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE.
● Work of 2 Courts
2 main categories:
DIRECT ACTIONS
(Heard by CoFI)
Where an individual, company, member state, or EU institution brings proceedings against an EU institution or member state.
The defendant is almost always the Commission of the Council- proceedings normally brought against an act they have adopted.
PRELIMINARY RULINGS
(Exclusive to ECoJ)
If a matter of EU law arises in a national
court case, the national court can ask for a ruling from the
● Future
Judges call for change- moving closer
towards system alike
Potential of new power. Important to put more significant role on CoFI.
European Commission believes CoFI could perhaps develop into the main court of European law for settling disputes of all kinds.
National judges should also resolve more issues themselves- after all they are judges of European law also.
● Open
Questions
The court is neither open nor democratic.
Almost an internal court. Unelected by citizens, unaccountable and until expansion into larger realms of law- remains vacant to EU citizens.
Many citizens fail to see direct fruits of its labours- could be done through criminal law?
Problem addressing public.
How can the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance increase the scope of their powers directly without ‘treading on toes’ of member nations sovereignty? And involve the awareness of the EU citizens?
Also, without a written constitution, is the court capable of expansion into all legal sectors?