Preliminary ruling

According to Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU ), the European Court of Justice (ECJ ) a preliminary ruling or appeal to the court of a Member State by way of preliminary rulings on the interpretation of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and on the validity and interpretation of acts of the institutions, bodies, offices or agencies of the Union ( secondary legislation ). The decisions are binding on the courts of the Member States. The preliminary ruling procedure is to ensure uniformity in the jurisdiction of the courts of the Member States with regard to the EU law. About half of all cases pending before the ECJ procedures are preliminary ruling procedure.

Template and template legal obligation of national courts

If, in the context of legal proceedings before a court of a Member State of the European Union to a corresponding question of interpretation, this court has the opportunity to present for decision the question to the ECJ. Raises such a question in a proceeding before a court of last instance decisive, that court is obliged to appeal to the ECJ. Last instance courts for the purposes of invocation duty is not only the supreme courts of the relevant jurisdiction, but each court whose decision can not be challenged on appeal in a particular case.

The former special pursuant to Article 68 of the Treaty for legislation in the areas of visas, asylum, immigration and free movement of persons, according to which the lower courts had no original right, but only the last instance courts decisive, is in the course of the changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty since 1 December 2009 ceased to exist.

Functions of the preliminary ruling procedure

The preliminary ruling procedure is to articulate the national and European courts. The ECJ and the national courts exercise their judicial business due to the different responsibilities of side by side. In order to prevent a divergent interpretation and application of Union law by the courts of the Member States, had a procedure be established to allow some cooperation between these jurisdictions to protect the legal entity.

The other function of the preliminary ruling is to ensure a binding interpretation and validity control. Therefore, the ECJ has the responsibility for design of the entire primary and secondary Union legislation and the validity of acts of the institutions of the Union held.

Method

The procedure is set out in the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Rules of Court. The preliminary ruling procedure is designed not as an adversary proceeding, but as an objective procedural intermediate procedures. In the process of public hearing. The States and the institutions involved are represented by an agent, the parties must be represented by an attorney.

After the national court stayed the proceedings pending before him by a decision process, it applied for a preliminary ruling and sent to the Court for its decision and the questions referred for a preliminary ruling. The Court specifically stated the purpose of the main proceedings, the essential arguments of the parties to the main proceedings, a justification of the template and the cases cited and listed under Union law and national regulations.

The parties to the main proceedings, the Member States, the Commission and, where appropriate, bodies, offices or agencies of the Union which adopted the act the validity or interpretation of which is in dispute, shall be entitled, are involved in the process and have the opportunity, within two months after they have been notified by the Registrar of the Court the decision of the national court to the question to submit its observations by submitting written statements of case or written observations. The same applies to the Agreement on the European Economic Area that are not Member States and the EFTA Surveillance Authority, if one is concerned the areas of application of the Agreement.