Preliminary Reference In Law

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"The Preliminary reference mechanism has been one of the driving forces behind the development of EU law." Preliminary reference is a big part of European Law, and has always been an important part in the continual development of EU law itself. Preliminary references are governed by article 267 of TFEU. This can also be referred to as a preliminary ruling and has been defined as a decision by the Court of Justice on the interpretation of EU law, made at the request of a national court of an EU member state. This encourages member states to come together in a uniform way regarding the undefined area of community law. A preliminary reference is usually brought forward by a national court when there is some kind of doubt about a word or a phrasing…show more content…
This can be seen in the case of of pigs marketing. Having said this, there are a various number of points that should be kept in mind when deciding whether or not to refer. Firstly, EU law interpretation involves comparisons between the different language versions of the provision concerned. Secondly, the concepts within the EU law are not required to have the same meaning as the laws of the various member states. Another point to note is that every provision of the EU law should be viewed at as a whole, ensuring that its objectives and developments are taken into…show more content…
From the various doctrines we have discussed we can see that it have benifited the EU in a number of ways. Firstly it has allowed EU citizens to rely on EU law against a member state or another citizen in a case of law through the doctrine of direct effect. It has also allowed for EU law to be applied throughout all the member states, and thus ensures that all member states come together uniformly regarding the topic of community law. Having said this, it is not entirely perfect and there are a various number of things that can hinder it, as seen in the excess number of cases that nearly 50 to 60% of the 500 to 600 cases brought in each year are preliminary rulings. The vast majority of these cases have a general waiting period of up to sixteen months. Another issue that can be mentioned is the increasing number of official EU languages. This has imposed a massive burden on the ECJ in regards to translation of judgements. In conclusion, I feel that there has not been an extensive amount of change to the procedure as there is a certain aspect of fear regarding too much change effecting the development of EU law, and that there won’t be as much development than what we have seen in recent
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