The Preliminary Reference Procedure and Questions of International and National Law

Summary:

This article discusses the preliminary reference procedure. Hence, the interaction between national courts and the European Court of Justice.

The first sections of the article set out to identify and categorise those instances where the European Court of Justice (ECJ) considers itself to be competent in the following two situations; when a national court considers the interpretation of a Community act to be relevant to its deciding the main action, even though the act does not apply directly in that action and when the preliminary reference concerns international law. The following section critically evaluates the findings made in the two previous sections. The last section rounds off with some reflections upon what the European Court of Justice’s approach to each of the two situations tells us about the way it perceives its function in the Community and to what extent the distinctions drawn in the case law are justified.

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