Preliminary ruling

A preliminary ruling is a decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the interpretation of European Union law, made at the request of a court or tribunal of a European Union member state. Preliminary rulings are final determinations of Union law in question by the EU courts. The final decision remains with the referring court to be decided after it received the preliminary ruling. European Union Preliminary rulings can only be made by the European Court of Justice. The Treaty of Lisbon provided that jurisdiction may be conferred on the General Court but this has not been put into effect.[1]

Procedure

A request (or reference) for a preliminary ruling is made by submitting questions to the ECJ for resolution. However, questions are not answered in abstraction, but rather are submitted together with the circumstances leading up to their being asked. Thus, whilst the ECJ is limited to deciding the law in question, the ECJ's ruling frequently leaves little room to rule other than in a certain way. The ECJ may also decline to give judgement in the absence of a genuine dispute.[2]

Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union states the following:

"The Court of Justice of the European Union shall have jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings concerning:
(a) the interpretation of the Treaties;
(b) the validity and interpretation of acts of the institutions, bodies, offices or agencies of the Union;
Where such a question is raised before any court or tribunal of a Member State, that court or tribunal may, if it considers that a decision on the question is necessary to enable it to give judgment, request the Court to give a ruling thereon.
Where any such question is raised in a case pending before a court or tribunal of a Member State against whose decisions there is no judicial remedy under national law, that court or tribunal shall bring the matter before the Court.
If such a question is raised in a case pending before a court or tribunal of a Member State with regard to a person in custody, the Court of Justice of the European Union shall act with the minimum of delay."

Courts that may ask questions

What constitutes a "court or tribunal" is a matter of Union law and it is not to be determined by reference to national law.[3] In determining whether or not a body is a "court or tribunal of Member State" the European Courts will take a number of issues into account, namely whether—

  1. it is established by law,
  2. it is permanent,
  3. its jurisdiction is compulsory,
  4. it has an inter partes procedure,
  5. it applies rules of law, and
  6. it is independent.[4]

However, these criteria are not absolute. In Broekmeulen v Huisarts Registratie Commissie[5] the ECJ ruled that a body established under the auspices of the Royal Medical Society for the Promotion of Medicine was a "court or tribunal" within the meaning of the treaty, even though that society was a private association. Also the Benelux Court of Justice was considered a court within this context, as a court common to several (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg) Member States. Also the Unified Patent Court, as a court common to several Member States is expected to be able to ask prejudicial questions.

Ruling on non-EU cases

The European Court of Justice is competent to give rulings regarding the interpretation of treaties to which the European Union is a party, as those treaties are considered to be part of EU law. ECJ is however also competent regarding the application of certain treaties between EU member states, although the procedure may be subject to different procedures. Two such treaties are the 1968 Brussels Convention on jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters and the 1980 Rome convention on applicable law (now mostly replaced by the Brussels I and Rome I regulations respectively).

Similar systems

The possibility to ask for a preliminary ruling is also embedded in other legal systems.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Craig, Paul; de Búrca, Gráinne (2011). EU law: text, cases, and materials (5th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 482. ISBN 9780199576999.
  2. ↑ Case 244/80, Pasquale Foglia v. Mariella Novello paragraph 18.
  3. ↑ Case C-24/92, Corbiau v Administration des Contributions at paragraph 15.
  4. ↑ Case C-54/96 Dorsch Consult Ingenieurgesellschaft v Bundesbaugesellschaft Berlin at paragraph 23.
  5. ↑ Case 246/80, C. Broekmeulen v Huisarts Registratie Commissie
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