The urgent preliminary ruling procedure: Ten years on

Summary:

Procedure, by definition, is nothing more than the established way of doing something. However, it is difficult to argue the fact that in terms of judicial process, procedure can sometimes affect or govern the substance of a dispute and even determine its final resolution.

This has, arguably, been the case for the preliminary reference procedure enshrined in Article 267 TFEU. Conceived as a mere procedural tool through which the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) was supposed to provide technical support to national courts on the interpretation of EU law, the preliminary reference procedure has evolved far beyond its original scope, to become both the guarantor of the constitutional integrity of the EU legal system and the engine of the EU integration process.