Morten Broberg and Niels Fenger, PRELIMINARY REFERENCES TO THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. lxii + 486 pp. ISBN 9780199565078. £125.
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2011.0050 |
| Pages | 334-335 |
| Published date | 01 May 2011 |
| Date | 01 May 2011 |
Before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, “Article 234 EC” tripped off the tongue with its inherent suggestion of logic. This mechanism (now Article 267 TFEU) – whereby a national court or tribunal may send a reference to the Court of Justice on any question(s) of the interpretation or validity of EU law – is a central feature of the Treaty's “complete system of legal remedies and procedures” (e.g. Case C-50/00 P, para 40). The case law developed through it has contributed strongly to the evolution of EU law in substantive terms, often delivering results for national applicants that would not have been possible under domestic law; but it has also solidified legal relations within the EU legal order, enabling national lawyers and national courts and tribunals to access the Court of Justice at any stage of domestic proceedings and, through that process, weaving EU law more organically into national legal reasoning – in theory, at least.
The basic tenets of Article 267 are set out in the provision itself; any national court or tribunal may make a reference on either the interpretation or validity of EU law; only courts or tribunals “against whose decisions there is no judicial remedy under national law”
The book's structure is, essentially, perfect. The opening chapters set the contextual scene, providing, first, an overview of the...
To continue reading
Request your trial