Ensuring of the Uniform Interpretation of the EU Law in the Judicial Practice of the Member States

Abstract

Legal disputes are most often focused on the problem how to harmonize the national law based on the pre-emption of the Constitution with the direct application and priority of the European Union law, what way to assure symbiosis and harmonious functioning of these two systems.
The essential grounds for recognition and application of the European Community law in the Member States, its transformation into the independent international law system and the indicator of the increasing authority of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is the practice of presentation of preliminary rulings, predetermining the existence of permanent relations between the EU court institution and the courts of the Member States.
The provisions of Article 234 (ex.177) of the EC Treaty have a major effect on the central role of ECJ in the formation of the European Community and the dynamics of the application and acknowledgment of the EC law of Member States. According to this Article of EC Treaty, at the request of the Member State, the ECJ grants the right to adopt a preliminary ruling.
Article 234 (ex. 177) provides that a national court may, or in certain circumstances must, refer certain questions to the Court of Justice if it considers that a decision on the question is necessary to enable it to give judgement. The questions that may be referred are those as to the interpretation of the EC Treaty or of the secondary legislation and those as to the validity of the secondary legislation. In both cases, jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and national courts is directly interrelated in this process.
The right to request a preliminary ruling is given by Article 234 of the EC Treaty to any court or tribunal of a Member State. It is for the ECJ to decide whether a body is a court or tribunal for the purposes of this article and the categorization of that body under national law is not conclusive. It is fundamental to stress that notion “court of law” in the sense of Article 234 need not coincide with the corresponding notion under national law.
The Highest court may, on the basis of the acte clair and acte eclaire doctrines, examine a question of Community law without any preliminary ruling, on the condition that the court has no doubts whatsoever that national courts of other member states as well as the ECJ would share the view of the Highest Court.