‘The winner takes it all’: Recovering lawyers’ fees and other costs before the Community courts

Publishers Abstract:
As a rule, litigation before the Community courts is free of charge. However, there are both statutory and case law-based rules about legal costs. This is known as the 'award of costs' or the 'cost-shifting' rule. This paper examines the rules on the award of costs and how they are applied in practice by the Community institutions and the Community courts. All in all, the rules on the award of costs before the Community courts are generally clear and well established. The clarity of the system is enhanced by the fact that the CFI now drafts thorough and well-reasoned orders on the taxation of costs, and that these orders are now almost always published. Whether the system is fair and efficient is another matter.