Book Review: Labour Law in the Courts – National Judges and the European Court of Justice
| Published date | 01 December 2002 |
| Author | A.P. van der Mei |
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X0200900405 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
9 MJ 4 (2002) 421
Book Review
Silvana Sciarra (ed.), Labour Law in the Courts – National Judges and
the European Court of Justice, Hart Publishing, 2001, xlviii + 316 pages,
hardback, £ 35.
Articles 220 (the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ‘shall ensure that in the interpretation
and application of this Treaty the law is observed’) and 234 (preliminary ruling
procedure) of the EC Treaty confer upon the ECJ a hermeneutic monopoly intended to
guarantee the uniform interpretation and application of EC law. Member States, the EC
political institutions, lawyers, academics and others may all have their own views on
how EC rules and principles are best interpreted, but the final word is for the ECJ. EC
law means what the ECJ says that it means. The Court, however, does not sit in the
luxurious setting of an ivory tower far above, and isolated from, the world in which the
law it interprets must be applied. First, the ECJ may be the ultimate interpreter of EC
law, but it is up to other actors including, in particular, national courts to apply and
enforce EC law. While deliberating cases, ECJ judges cannot wholly ignore, and in fact
they must anticipate, how rulings will be received at the national judicial level. As the
case law history shows, national courts do not always automatically accept the
supremacy of EC rules as interpreted by the ECJ. Second, the ECJ is largely dependent
on national courts when it comes to determining the issues that it is able to rule upon. In
principle it is for nationals courts to decide whether and which preliminary questions are
referred to the ECJ and how these are phrased. Article 234 EC does not provide for a
hierarchical procedure under which the ‘higher’ court in Luxembourg can always tell
the ‘lower’ national courts when to do what and how to settle disputes. Rather, the
preliminary ruling procedure is based on a ‘judicial co-operation... which requires the
national court and the Court of Justice, both keeping within their respective jurisdiction,
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