Free Law Dissertations - Any Court Or Tribunal, Or Any Body Which Exercises A Judicial Function By
Any court or tribunal, or any body which exercises a judicial function by making legally binding decisions, can make a reference to the ECJ, but a court or tribunal need only refer to the ECJ if a ruling is ‘necessary’ for the judgment. Under UK procedure a ruling will only be necessary if it were conclusive to the judgment and will not be ‘necessary’ if the ECJ has already ruled in the matter or the matter was reasonably free from doubt under the universally adopted doctrine of Acte Clair. Necessity is outlined in under the CILFIT criterion which states that a ruling will not be necessary if any one of the following situations arises:
the question of interpretation of Community Law raised before the national court is irrelevant to the outcome of the case
the question raised is materially identical to a question raised is materially identical to a question which has already been the subject of a preliminary ruling in a similar case
where the correct application of Community law is so obvious as to leave no scope for any reasonable doubt as to the manner in which the question raised is to be resolved and the court is convinced that the manner is equally obvious to the courts of other Member States and the ECJ.
Application of ECJ Rulings
National courts may still decide a reference is necessary even if there is an ECJ ruling on the same issue. Generally, it takes 18-24 months for the ECJ to make a complete interpretation and all rulings are interlocutory. Interpretation of the ruling and response to the ruling is binding on the court making the application. The interpretations apply equally to all Member States irrespective of the origin of the reference in order to maintain the even-handedness and universality of EC law application across the EU. The UK is bound to comply with Treaty obligations under Article 10; thus, all UK courts must adhere to ECJ rulings and consider and implement EC law. In some cases this may require the court to refuse to apply conflicting provisions in national law in favour of the ruling. Rulings of the ECJ are retrospective except in certain cases. The exceptions exist where the ECJ may declare that its ruling has only prospective effect if making it retrospective could lead to serious economic repercussions or if the ECJ rules that a piece of EC law is void.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BARNETT, H. (2002) Constitutional & Administrative Law 4th Edition London: Cavendish Publishing Ltd.
CRAIG, P. AND DEBURCA, G. (1996) EC Law Text, Cases & Materials Oxford: Clarendon Press.
PENNER, J.E. (2001) Mozley & Whiteley’s Law Dictionary 12th Edition London: Butterworths.
TILLOTSON, J. (2002) European Union Law: Text Cases and Materials 3rd Edition London: Cavendish Publishing Ltd.
Dissertations - Free Law Dissertations
