The Court of Justice of the European Union

Abstract

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is one of the institutions of the European Union, mentioned among the other institutions, such as the European Council, the Council (of Ministers), the Parliament and the Court of Auditors, in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). Its fundamental task is to ensure ‘that in the interpretation and application of the Treaties the law is observed’, according to Article 19 TEU, which also lays down in brief the Court’s structure, composition and jurisdiction. Articles 251–281 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) develop the three elements mentioned in Article 19 and list the different actions to which the CJEU is open and the means of enforcement of its judgements. The Statute of the CJEU gives further details on the position of the judges and Advocates General (AG) of the Court of Justice (CoJ) and the General Court (GC), the way in which these courts are organized and conduct their business. The Statute is one of the Protocols attached to the TFEU and as such has treaty rank, but its provisions, except Title 1 on the status, nomination, obligations and loss of office of judges and Article 64, the provision on the language regime of the CJEU, can be modified by normal legislative procedure, that is to say by Council and Parliament acting together, on a proposal of the CoJ after consultation of the Commission or on a proposal of the Commission, after consultation of the CoJ (Article 281 TFEU). In some instances, the TFEU provides for special decision-making rules where the CJEU is concerned. Thus the Council may unanimously increase the number of Advocates-General (8) of the CoJ laid down in Article 252 TFEU at the request of the Court, and the Council must approve the Rules of Procedure of the CoJ, the GC and any specialised court. The CJEU consists of the Court of Justice (CoJ), the General Court (GC) and may also include specialized courts. The first two are mentioned explicitly in Article 19 TEU; specialized courts have to be created by the colegislators according to the same procedure as provided for the amendment of the Statute of the Court. Such specialized courts are created for hearing at first instance specific categories of cases, which may be defined by the type of action under which they are brought or by the area of Union law that they cover. They are ‘attached’ to the GC, and appeal from their judgements lies with the GC and is limited to points of law (Article 257 TFEU). The only specialized court ever created under these provisions is the EU Civil Service Tribunal (EUCST), which has been abolished as a consequence of the transfer on 1 September 2016 to the General Court of the jurisdiction over disputes between the European civil servants and the institutions for which they work. The elements that influence the legitimacy of the CJEU and its case law will be approached according to the general schedule of analysis used in this book. The analysis will focus on the CoJ and the GC with emphasis on the first. The EUCST will only sporadically be referred to.