Hello, my name is Julian Nowag, and I'll talk to you about the Court of Justice of

the European Union.

First, I´ll provide you with some background on the institutional set up, of the
judicial branch of the European Union.

Second, we will look more closely at the workings of the European courts.

Looking at the institutional setting, article 19 explains that the judicial branch is
collectively called the Court of Justice of the European Union or CJEU.

It has a task to ensure that in the interpretation and the application of the treaties,
the law is observed. The judicial branch is made up of the Court of Justice, the
general court and specialized courts.

An example of a specialized court could be the Civil Service Tribunal which deals
with employment disputes related to employees of the EU.

The Court of justice is the highest court of the European Union. It is just one of the
courts of the European Union. The Court of Justice may be confused with the
Court of Justice of the European Union, or CJEU, but if one reads Article 19 TEU
carefully, it becomes clear that the court of justice is just one court of the
judicial branch of the EU. That is to say, all the courts of the EU together.

All these courts together Form the judicial branch of the EU and are referred to
collectively as the Court of Justice of the European Union or the CJEU.

The basic structure of the Judicial Branch of the EU. Which of the following
statements are true? The Court of Justice of the European Union is the
collective name of all the courts that make up the Judicial Branch of the EU.
And The General Court is but one of several courts of the EU Judicial
Branch.

The second court in the judicial order of the EU is the General Court or GC.

If we now turn to the second part of this lecture, the working of the courts, the
following picture emerges. The European Court of Justice has 28 judges. One
of each members state. The General Court, in contrast, has at least 28 judges.
That is to say, at least one judge from each member state.
The General Court is the Court of First Instance in the EU. So if you would
want to challenge an EU measure, you would typically first apply it to the
General Court. Previously, it was therefore called the Court of First Instance.

The Court of Justice has a wide range of functions. One function is to rule on
appeals on the General Court. Moreover, it decides on, for example, an action
brought by an institution or a member state. Such actions would typically be
infringement proceedings brought by the commission, where the commission
believes that a member state has breached EU law.

Additionally, the court of justice rules on preliminary references. Preliminary

references, these are questions on any interpretation of EU law asked by
national courts or tribunals. Or it rules on the validity of acts adopted by the
European institutions.

The court can also decide on matters relating to damages claims against EU
Institutions and can provide an opinion on whether an international agreement
envisaged by the EU is compatible with the EU treaties, as explained in Article
218, paragraph 11.

The Court of Justice is assisted by advocates general. The advocate general is an

independent legal expert that provides advice to the court in form of an opinion.
An advocate general would typically provide its opinion on a matter before the
court of justice decides. While the Court of Justice is not obliged to follow the
opinion of the advocate general, it does so in the majority of cases.

The opinions by the advocate general provide a valuable source, as the

advocate general discusses the case, and the previous case law, in detail and
provides reasons why the court should adopt a particular decision. It's
important to note that though the opinion of the Advocate General is
important, they are not binding for the Court.

This is in particular important because the course bases its judgments mainly on
previously decided cases. In this respect, the courts method is similar to the
common law method.

As a final point, let me say something about citation of cases. From 1953 until
1988, there was only one court, the European Court of Justice. The numbering of
the cases during this time is made up first of a number, which denotes the
number of the case. A slash, after which the year is recorded.

Thus Case 1/73 is the first case that arrived to the court in the year 1973.

After 1988, the General Court, and in 2005 the Civil Service Tribunal were
established.

Now, judgments of the court of justice are preceded by a C. So, case C 1/89
means that it is the first case that arrived to the Court of Justice in 1989.

Cases before the General Court have a T before them. Thus case T 20/97
means that it was the 20th case that was received by the General Court in
1997.

and

Cases decided by the Civil Service Tribunal are proceed by an F.

Well, let us summarize. In this lecture we have looked at the judicial branch of the
European Union. And we have got to know the different EU courts and their
working.

This knowledge should provide you with the relevant background for
understanding the interaction between the different courts of the EU.