Europos Sąjungos teisės poveikis Lietuvos administracinei justicijai: tendencijų kontūrai. Pirma dalis

Abstract

Problems that arise due to the relation of European Union Law and Lithuanian administrative justice are discussed in the article. A lot of attention is given for answering the question why it is important to properly apply the European Union Law in administrative courts.
The obligation to apply European Union law in administrative courts of Lithuania is mostly determined by EU principles of direct operation, application and superiority of EU law, as it is formulated in the practice of European Court of Justice. However, the national courts of the highest instances undertake special responsibility to assure proper application of EU law. Member states shall compensate the detriments for every obvious misapplication, especially if the reason of this misapplication is caused by not addressing the European Court of Justice for the preliminary ruling. This kind of responsibility cannot be limited entirely in the cases of judge’s deliberate mistake or serious fault.
Most of the problems of application of EU law occur in such Lithuanian administrative court practice areas as competition law, customs law, and tax law. Nevertheless, the context of EU law, at least in a form of principles stated by the European Court of Justice, practically occurs in all situations that cannot be attached to the area of absolute operation of national law (state service, budget forming, and safety of state secrets, defense and other similar juridical relations).
The practice of applying norms of EU law in Lithuanian administrative courts should be relevant not only for administrative courts and public administration subjects that have their acts evaluated in administrative courts but, also, for the general competence courts that have to follow that practice in such exceptional cases when they are given attorneys of law to decide for the legitimacy of administrative acts.
The relation of national courts and Court of Justice can be described as “two-way street” in which ECJ presents the guidelines to national courts for the explanation and application of EU law, while the practice of national courts becomes a kind of impulse for the Court of Justice to solve specific problems related to the application of EU law.
European Court of Justice often relies on the practice and principles of national courts. The examples of “good practice” of national courts may result in the decision of the Court of Justice to choose analogical way of interpreting EU law as the national court has.