European Court of Justice

The Court of Justice of the EU, usually called the European Court of Justice (ECJ), is the highest court of the European Union (EU). It is based in Luxembourg City, unlike most of the rest of the European Union institutions, which are based in Brussels and Strasbourg.

The ECJ is the highest court of the European Union in matters over which it has competency (below), but no others - EU member states' supreme courts, or equivalent, are the highest courts in their respective jurisdictions in all other matters, as each nation state has its own sovereign and different legal and jurisprudence systems.

The European Court is n o t a normal court deciding on verdicts on the basis of laws from a parliament. The EU-Court also develops the law. The Court has established EU law as a constitutional system which has primacy over national laws.

A verdict from the Court may have effects which cannot be changed even if all members of the European Parliament should unanimously desire such chages. An interpretation of the treaties by the Court can only be changed by a new treaty agreed by all 27 governments and then ratified with the support of the 27 national parliaments or by referendums in some countries.

It adjudicates on matters of interpretation of European Union law, most commonly:

· Claims by the European Commission that a member state has not implemented a European Union Directive or other legal requirement.

· Claims by member states that the European Commission has exceeded its authority.

· References from national courts in the EU member states asking the ECJ questions about the meaning or validity of a particular piece of EU law. The Union has many languages and competing political interests, and so local courts often have difficulty deciding what a particular piece of legislation means in a given context. The ECJ will then give its ruling which is binding on the national court, to which the case will be returned to be disposed of. The ECJ is only permitted to aid in interpretation of the law, not decide the facts of the case itself.

Individuals cannot bring cases to the ECJ directly. An individual who is sufficiently concerned by an act of one of the institutions of the European Union can challenge that act in a lower court, called the Court of First Instance. An appeal on points of law lies against the decisions of the Court of First Instance to the ECJ. Employees of the European Commission and other EU institutions currently sue their employer in the Court of First Instance. However, a specialist European Union Civil Service Tribunal was set up in 2005 to deal with these matters. In addition, the creation of a European Union Patent Tribunal is currently being examined.

The Court is only responsible for first pillar (supra-national) issues, where supranational Community law applies, and is therefore officially called the European Community Court. Under the Treaty of Nice the Court gained competence in some Justice and Home Affairs and consequently may now be called the EU Court.