European law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

European law - Essay Example refers a question of EC law to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling so as to enable the national court, on receiving that ruling, to decide the case before it. Questions of EC law will arise in cases before the courts of different Member States. The function of the preliminary reference procedure is to ensure uniform interpretation and validity of EC law across all the Member States.† It also said that the procedure is laid down in Article 234 EC: ‘Where such a question is raised before any court or tribunal of a Member State, that court may, if it considers that a decision on the question is necessary to enable it to give judgment, require the Court of Justice to give a ruling thereon.’ (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. 2005) On the other hand, preliminary ruling is defined as: ‘a special type of action before the ECJ by which national courts ask the ECJ to interpret EU law or to decide on validity and direct effect of EU acts; ECJ ruling is binding and not subject to appeal.’ (GLOSSARY OF EUROPEAN UNION COMMONLY USED TERMS, no date) The reference procedure, therefore, is a creation of the treaty makers who are the member states themselves. The fact that ECJ ruling would be binding and not subject to appeal as a result of the reference is itself a conferment of a strong power to the ECJ. To say therefore that the reference procedure has made the ECJ more than how it should function is to imply attribution of more powers than it was originally conferred under the treaty. (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 2005) Alter said that ECJ started as fairly weak international tribunal from many of the problems faced by international courts. The court then, according to her, lacked cases to adjudicate and since no enforcement was in place, its decisions were not taken seriously. The author further said that the ECJ created a base of political leverage for