Preliminary Rulings Flashcards
SAT Fluggelgesellschaft v EUROCONTROL
Preliminary rulings aren’t an appeals procedure.
Kuhne & Heitz
Obligation on an administrative body to review a final administrative decision in order to take account of the interpretation of the relevant provision given in the meantime by the CJEU if (1) power to reopen under national law, (2) decision is final, or (3) decision was based on a misinterpretation of EU law which was not referred.
Arsenal Football Club v Reed
High Court found CJEU had made findings of fact which conflicted with the facts they had established, refused to accept the ruling. Court of Appeal overturned High Court decision, inconsistency didn’t arise from different facts but from a variance in legal reasoning.
Foglio v Novello
No admissibility where there is no genuine dispute.
Wienand Meilicke v Meyer
No admissibility where the questions are irrelevant or hypothetical.
Irish Creamery Suppliers case
No admissibility where the national court has failed to provide sufficient legal or factual information
Politi s.a.s v Ministry of Finance of the Italian Commissie
Dutch appeals Committee for General Medicine was under consideration, heard appeals from other bodies and was indirectly recognised by Dutch law, held it was a court/tribunal, it operated with the approval and assistance of the public authorities, reached decisions after granted a full hearing, its decisions affected the right to work under EU law, were final and were not subject to appeal to the ordinary courts.
Nordsee Deutsche Horchseefischerei
Arbitration not a “court or tribunal”, contracting parties were under no obligation to refer dispute to arbitration and public authorities were not involved.
Syfait
Court held that level of state involvement (through national authorities) in the operation of the referring body is a strong indication of its independence.
Dorsch Consult
Six criteria which indicate body/tribunal, must: (1) be established by law, (2) have a permanent existence, (3) exercise binding jurisdiction, (4) its procedures must be inter partes, (5) apply the rule of law, and (6) be independent.
Bollinger v Bollinger
Criteria to consider for necessity to refer: (1) time to get ruling, (2) do not overload the court, (3) formulate the question clearly, (4) difficulty and importance, (5) expense, (6) wishes of the parties.
R v International Stock Exchange
Is the question of EU law critical to the outcome of the case? If yes, refer.
Trinity Mirror Case
Reference is most appropriate where the ruling is likely to promote the uniform application of EU law throughout the EU, references inappropriate where the ruling was unlikely to have any application beyond the case in hand.
Rheinmuhlen
Higher courts cannot stop lower courts from making references.
R v Plymouth Justices (ex parte Rogers)
Reference can be made by Magistrates Court but it can be quashed on appeal. Higher courts may be in better position to assess need for reference.
Kobler v Austria
Agreed that states may be sued for failure to refer where there is an obligation to do so. In this case failure was not manifestly apparent as it had acted in good faith that the matter was covered by a previous CJEU decision.
Da Costa en Schaake
National court can still refer a point if there has already been a ruling, but such an application must raise some new factor or argument.
CILFIT
Ruling is not necessary where: (1) the question is not relevant to the conclusion of the case, (2) the provision has already been interpreted by the CJEU through previous identical question, (3) the correct application of EU law is so obvious that there is no reasonable doubt over the answer to any questions raised, doctrine of acte clair.
ICC Case
Decisions of the CJEU have precedential impact on all national courts, only the CJEU may find EU law invalid.
Firma Foto-Frost case
National court didn’t have power to declare void a Commission decision for breaching a Community regulation.
Gaston Schul
Unqualified obligation to refer, national courts have no jurisdiction themselves to determine that acts of Union institutions are valid.