The Influence of the Eurasian Economic Union Court’s Legal Findings on the Case Law of Russian Courts in Customs Disputes

Abstract

In the absence of a preliminary reference procedure as an instrument of judicial dialogue between the EAEU Court and national jurisdictions a key role in the uniform application of Union law and its efficiency in general will be played by the reception of EAEU Court’s legal findings by the courts of the Member States. Using the case law in the field of customs relations as an example the author examines the use of the EAEU Court’s case law by Russian courts. The results of this analysis show a significant number of references by Russian courts of not only the EAEU Court’s approaches in cases relating to the customs classification of goods, but also to universal legal findings in the fields of technical regulation, free movement of goods and protection of fundamental rights. It also shows that a judicial dialogue needs to be established not only with the Supreme Court, but with lower courts as well. The articles also explores the current problems in the interaction between the EAEU Court and the Russian courts such as the impossibility to review a judgment in the light of new circumstances in Russian courts after a judgment of the EAEU Court. The author considers that this significantly undermines the effectiveness of an application to the EAEU Court and of the EAEU system of legal protection in general. In order to solve this problem it appears necessary to modify the procedural codes in the Member States as well as to amend the EAEU Treaty.