Law I / The European Union Legal Order
Practice question · Select all that apply

Which are true of the preliminary reference procedure under Article 267 TFEU?

Hints
  1. Three describe the division of labour; one describes a court of appeal, which this is not.
  2. The referring court keeps the case throughout.
Show the answer
  • B. A national court may ask the Court of Justice how a provision of EU law is to be interpreted
  • C. The Court of Justice rules on interpretation and leaves the application to the referring court
  • D. A national court against whose decision there is no judicial remedy is in principle obliged to refer
Why

The fourth misdescribes the whole mechanism. The reference is a dialogue between courts, not an appeal: the Court of Justice answers a question of interpretation or validity, and the national court then decides its own case in the light of the answer. The obligation on courts of last instance exists because otherwise EU law could diverge permanently between states with no route to correction.

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