Text 1 RE: Der Gerichtshof der Europäischen Union (EuGH)

• The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) ensures that the terms of the treaties are respected and applied accurately and is a supranational EU institution.
• The ECJ's decisions have expanded and clarified the meaning of integration and influenced areas like the single market, competition policy, human rights, and gender equality.

Structure of the ECJ

• The ECJ consists of the Court of Justice, the General Court, and (formerly) the EU Civil Service Tribunal.
• The Court of Justice is the final interpreter and court of appeal on EU law matters.
• The General Court deals with less complex cases.
• The EU Civil Service Tribunal dealt with EU staff matters but was integrated into the General Court in 2016.
• The European Court of Human Rights' rulings also have implications for European integration, although it is a separate institution.

Key Points of the European Court of Justice

• The European Court of Justice clarifies the meaning of the treaties and issues judgments in disputes involving EU institutions, member states, and individuals.
• Judges are appointed for six-year renewable terms by member states and are assisted by advocates-general, which review cases and deliver independent opinions.
• The Court is headed by a president elected by the judges.
• The General Court is the first point of decision for less complicated cases.
• Court actions include preliminary rulings (from national courts) and direct actions (disputes brought directly before the Court).
• The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights also has an important bearing on EU law.

Mutual Recognition

• Mutual recognition means that a product or service sold legally in one EU member state should be available in other member states.
• Local businesses cannot refuse to sell products/services legal elsewhere to protect local providers unless there's a valid reason.
• Mutual recognition is key to the single European marketplace.
• The ECJ played a role in enforcing this principle, removing a key handicap from the single market.

Constitutional Courts

• Constitutional courts rule on whether laws or government actions conflict with a constitution.
• They support, interpret, and clarify the meaning of a constitution.
• Some EU member states delegate judicial authority to supreme courts, while others combine features of constitutional and supreme courts.
• There are questions about whether the ECJ is truly a constitutional court.

ECJ as an Institutional Actor

• Some scholars argue the ECJ plays an important institutional role.
• The ECJ actively develops EU law through judicial interpretation.
• The ECJ is headquartered in Luxembourg, sharing the Centre Européen with other European institutions.

Structure of the European Court of Justice

• The ECJ is the judicial branch of the EU.
• It is headquartered in Luxembourg
• It is headed by a president elected from among its judges for renewable three-year terms.
• It consists of one judge per member state, each appointed for renewable six-year terms.
• Judges meet as chambers of three or five judges, or as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, rather than as a full court.
• It is assisted by 11 advocates-general appointed for renewable six-year terms who review cases and deliver opinions.

History of the European Court of Justice

• The ECJ traces back to the Court of Justice of the ECSC, founded in 1952.
• The Treaties of Rome created separate courts for the EEC and Euratom.
• A subsidiary agreement gave jurisdiction over all three to a single seven-member Court of Justice of the European Communities.
• The ECJ established a position that has made it the most supranational of the EU institutions and made judgements that have clarified treaties, expanded the reach of the EU, and expanded the authority of the Court itself.

Supranationalism

• Supranationalism involves political activity among states above the level of those states, with decision-making delegated to an institution working above the states involved.
• It involves some degree of loss of sovereignty by the member states involved.
• The ECJ leans towards the supranational, making decisions in the broad interest of the EU, using the treaties as a guide.

Direct Effect

• The principle of direct effect means that EU law is directly and uniformly applicable in all member states.
• Individuals can invoke EU law regardless of whether a relevant national law exists.
• This was established by the 1963 Court decision in the Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen case.

Supremacy of EU Law

• The supremacy of EU law means that EU law trumps national law in policy areas where the EU has responsibility.
• The EU member states have "limited their sovereign rights" to create a body of law that binds both their nationals and themselves.
• Article 9F addresses the EU Courts powers, specifically the Court's ability to implement "criminal sanctions when they are needed for the effective implementation of EU law".

President of the Court of Justice

• The Court of Justice is headed by a president elected by the judges from among their own number.
• The president is voted on by secret ballot by majority vote to serve a three-year renewable term.
• The president oversees meetings of the Court and is responsible for organizational matters.
• Those matters include assigning cases to chambers, appointing judge-rapporteurs (the judges responsible for shepherding a case through the review process), and deciding the dates for hearings.
• Despite the growing powers of the Court, presidents are the least known of the senior figures in the EU.

Judges of the Court

• Each member state nominates one judge to the Court of Justice.
• Judges cannot hold administrative or political office.
• The term of the position is for a six-year renewable term of office.
• Appointees are to be "persons whose independence is beyond doubt".
• Court Justices are vetted by a panel of legal scholars and former Justices of the ECJ.
• Newly appointed Judges are sworn to preform duties while imparting and preserving Court deliberations.
• In order to protect their independence, they are immune from having lawsuits brought against them.

Diversity of the European Court

• It was not until 1981 that the first female advocate-general was appointed to the Court.
• It was not until 1995 that the first female judge was appointed to the General Court.
• It was not until 1999 that the first female judge was appointed to the Court of Justice.

Actions for appeal

• Action Appeals can be lodged in various ways, and the Court can be asked to rule on things such as the treaty.

Structure of the European Court of Justice

• Meetings of the full Court are reserved only for proceedings to dismiss a European commissioner, a member of the Court of Auditors, or the European ombudsman.
• All other cases are heard by chambers of 3 or 5 judges, or by a Grand Chamber of 15 judges when a member state or another EU institution makes a specific request.
• Each judge has their own cabinet of assistants and legal secretaries, equivalent to the cabinets of European commissioners, and responsible for helping with research and keeping records.
• The Court has about 1,500 staff members, most of whom are bureaucrats or translators.

Advocates-General

• Advocates-general review cases as they come to the Court of Justice, study the arguments involved, and deliver independent opinions in Court before the judges decide which laws apply and what action to take.
• The opinions of the advocates-general are not binding on the judges, but they provide a valuable point of reference.
• The Court has nine advocates-general appointed to renewable six-year terms.
• An informal system has developed by which the four biggest member states fill on advocate-general each. The others are rotated out on an informal basis by the different Court members. The Council of Ministers have the right to appoint if a position is needed urgently.

General Court

• A court of First Instance was created to under the Single European Act to rule on less complicated cases.
• Those rulings included actions against EU institutions, actions brought by member states against the Commission.
• The body contains a similar structure to The Court of Justice that appoints a six-year removable structure.
• The court has no advocates-general.

What the Court Does

• The Court of Justice is responsible for making sure that the treaties are correctly interpreted, and that EU law is equally, fairly, and uniformly applied throughout the member states.
• The court is meant to guarantee fairness and uniformity.

Function of cases

• In certain cases the advocate-general delivers an opinion that is sent to a chamber, and allows a decision to be made in court.
• Judges are given the opportunity to vote on votes by simple majority that is kept secret to maintain authority.

Preliminary Rulings

• National courts must ask the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation or validity of an EU law (with the intention of consistency).
• Most of the preliminary rulings are usually requested and are given during a case so they are actually concurrent rather than preliminary.

Preliminary Rulings: Cases

• Classic examples of preliminary rulings included Van Gend en Loos and Flaminio Costa.
• Red Bull used preliminary to bring the Austrian energy drink to conflict with Amsterdam

Direct Actions

• Actions where one party brings the proceedings against another, the case must be heard in Justice, but they can be presented under five main forms
• Actions where failure to fulfill an obligation is performed with one member state
• The Actions of annulment (rare) are when the treaties are cancelled and the Laws of the EU fail.
• The Actions for Failure to Act are cases where a member of the EU are unwilling to comply with the rules.

Action Types

• Actions for damages- when third parties place claims against EU institutions for damages. Mostly by the General Court
• Actions by staff- Cases that work with staff and litigation and other problems when a employee is having workplace problems.

Appeals and other cases

• When the general Courts has its own judgement can be lodged with the Court of Justice.
• The court can rule on compatibility of draft international agreements with the treaties.
• The Couret can be calls too arbitrate on contracts, including on behalf of the EU, Members may sometimes dispute between member states over issues regarding territories.

European Court of Human Rights

• Is not part of the EU network of institutions.
• All EU member signets of both human rights to the court due to needing to be held in power.

Function of the Court

• Court made up of 47 judges.