Talking Now?
| Date | 01 December 2014 |
| Published date | 01 December 2014 |
| Author | Michal Bobek |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1402100412 |
| Subject Matter | Legal Debate |
782 21 MJ 4 (2014)
TALKI NG NOW?
Preliminary Rulings in and from
theNewMemberStates
M B*
§1. INTRODUC TION
In 2008, my revie w of the rst exper ience with the preliminary r ulings procedure in the
new Member States that joined the Union in 20 04 was somewhat boldly and perhaps
too optimistica lly entitled ‘Learning to Talk: Preliminary Rulings, the Courts of the New
Member States and the Court of Justice’. 1 e task of that largely descriptive piece was
to map the ground in the (Wi ld) East that had just joined the Union: the rst encounters
the judiciaries of t he new Member States had with EU law, the r st references submitted
to the Court of Justice (‘the Court’). For a seasoned and specializ ed observer from an
old Member State, a number of themes dealt with might already have been intimately
known. For at least some of the judges in the new Member State s, they were nonetheless
exciting novelt ies.
e time of curious discoveries and innocent enchantment passed by rather sw i ly.
Just a few years later, some darker shadows crept in as well. Whereas some courts in
the new Member States indeed lear ned to talk, others started shouting , and others were
conspicuously silent. Moreover, other courts learned to use t he preliminary ru lings
procedure for their own goals wit h remarkable speed.2
is short contribution re ects on the rst decade of the preli minary rulings
procedure in the new3 Member States. It looks at three layers in turn. First, the (crude)
statistics are reproduced. Second, several notes are attached to t he numbers, assessing
* Professor of Europea n Law, College of Europe, Bru ges and research fellow, Ox ford University Institute
of European and C omparative Law.
1 M. Bobek, ‘Lea rning to Talk: Prel iminary Ru lings, the Cou rts of the New Member State s and the Court
of Justice’, 45 CMLRev(2008), p.1611.
2 See notably M. Bobek , ‘Landtová, Holubec and the Problem of a n Uncooperative Court: Implic ations
for the Prelimi nary Rulings P rocedure’, 10 EUConst (2014), p.54.
3 e term of a ‘new Member State’, as far a s it can be in fact st ill used a er 10 years of membership, refers
to the 10 new Member States th at joined the Union in 2004 ( listed immedi ately in the next sect ion) and
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