Book Review: Preliminary References to the European Court of Justice
| Published date | 01 December 2011 |
| Date | 01 December 2011 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1101800410 |
| Author | Elaine Fahey |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
18 MJ 4 (2011) 559
BOOK REVIEWS
M. Broberg and N. Fenger, Preliminary References to the European Court of Justice,
Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, 552 pp., £ 130, ISBN 978–0–19–956507–8.
Preliminary References to the European Court of Justice has its orig ins in a Danish-
language publication (‘Præjudicielle forelæggelser for EF-Domstol en’) which has,
according to the authors, been considerably reworked, t ranslated and further developed
by them to produce this new Engli sh language text. is publication is dedicated to t he
distingu ished Danish judge and scholar, Ole Due. Although this book wa s published in
2010, the authors endeavour to state the law as and from October 200 9, prior to the entry
into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. ere is one exception made in Chapter 1.3.7, where the
changes to the Court of Just ice of the European Union eected by the Treaty of Lisbon
are outlined. As such, however, the text reec ts the pre-Lisbon state of aairs- so the tex t
is draed in respe ct of the former Article 234 EC and not Ar ticle 267 TFEU. Similarly the
title is perhaps out-dated with respec t to the name of the Court! is is a rguably the only
regrettable feature of th is worthwhile publication. e other lead ing contribution on
preliminar y references comes from two prominent UK-based practitioners of Europea n
Union law, David Anderson QC and Marie Demetriou1 and thes e texts cumulatively
ensure that the Engl ish-speaking communit y of lawyers and academics of EU law is well-
served indeed.
It is trite to say that the prelim inary reference mechanism is unequivocal ly the most
successful tool of the Court of Justice, which it has used to shape the constitutional
evolution of European Union law. Moreover, certain leading publications on the role of
the Court of Justice have ensured t he relevance of the preliminary reference procedure
to broader questions of European integrat ion and the use of law. One need only consider
Alter’s Establishing the Supremacy of European Law2 and her conclusions on the
preliminary reference mechanism as a tool of empowerment of lower courts within the
supremacy debacle as evidence of thi s. To similar eect, one ca n consider the assertions
of Hjalte Rasmussen’s On Law and Policy in the European Court of Justice . A Comparative
Study in Judicial Policymaking3 as to the interplay between the preli minary reference
1 D. Anderson and M. Deme triou, Referen ces to the European Cour t (2nd edition, Sweet & M axwell,
London 2002).
2 K.J. Alter, Establis hing the Supremacy of European L aw: the Making of an Internation al Rule of Law in
Europe (Oxford University Press , Oxford 2001).
3 H. Rasmussen, O n Law and Policy in the European Court of Ju stice. A Comparative Study in Judici al
Policymaking (Nijho, Dordrecht 1986).
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