Making the Court of Justice of the European Union More Productive
| Date | 01 December 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1402100410 |
| Author | Eleanor Sharpston |
| Published date | 01 December 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Legal Debate |
21 MJ 4 (2014) 763
MAKING THE COURT OF JUSTICE
OF THE EUROPEAN UNION MORE PRODUCTIVE
E S*
‘Our fathers taught, a sword ca me into the world through justice delayed and ju stice denied.’
Pirkei Avot, 5:11
Over the 62 years since its foundation, the workload of the Court of Justice of the
European Union (the CJEU)1 has – unsurprising ly – rocketed. From the halcyon early
days, where the arriv al of a reference for a preliminary ruli ng was a cause for celebration,
we have reached a situation where we are like skiers look ing anxiously over our shoulders
as we gingerly traverse across the h illside: is the slope above us about to avalanche, sweep
us o our feet and bur y us forever beneath the snows?
A su mm ar y t abl e, c omp il ed f rom th e CJ EU ’s A nnu al Rep or ts, wi ll su ce to set the scene:
Table 1. e Court of Just ice’s workload2
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
References lodged 210 249 221 251 265 288 302 385 423 4 04 450
Direct action s lodged 277 219 179 201 221 210 143 136 81 73 72
Appeals from Gene ral
Court lodged
63 52 66 80 79 78 105 97 162 136 161
Total new cases 561 531 474 537 5 80 593 562 631 688 632 699
References answered 233 262 254 266 235 301 259 339 388 386 413
Direct actions decided 193 299 263 212 241 181 215 139 117 70 110
Appeals decided 57 89 48 63 88 69 97 84 117 117 155
Total completed cases 49 4 665 574 546 570 567 5 88 574 638 595 701
Pending cases 974 840 740 731 741 767 742 799 849 886 884
* e author has been ser ving as an advoca te general at the Cour t of Justice of the Europea n Union since
10January 200 6. All views ex pressed are personal .
1 In those early d ays, the ‘Court of Just ice’ (then, ‘of the European C ommunities’) was b oth an instit ution
and a single jur isdiction. Now, the CJEU is compr ised of three juri sdictions, respec tively denominated
the ‘Court of Just ice’, the ‘General Court ’ and the ‘Civil Ser vice Tribunal’. In this cont ribution, I shall
be focusing exclusively on the work of the Court of Justice (the juri sdiction in which I ser ve).
2
Notes: (1) ‘Total new cases’ includes ever y form of action and therefore exceeds t he sum of references,
direct act ions and appeals . (2) Likewise, the gure for the tota l ‘stock’ of pendi ng cases includes e very form
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