Inadmissibility of the Referral Request for Preliminary Questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union. National Case-Law vs. CJEU Case-Law
Inadmissibility of the Referral Request for Preliminary Questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union. National Case-Law vs. CJEU Case-Law

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of the CJEU's referral with preliminary questions, but also to sound an alarm about the laxity with which some national courts allow such requests. We also wish to point out that more and more national courts tend to send requests for preliminary questions to the CJEU which actually appear to be asking for guidance from the Court on the national dispute and not for clarification or interpretation of the Treaties or European law. In order to achieve the objectives of this approach, using the comparative and logical method, we shall analyse the specific legislation, the relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union as well as the practice of national courts. The starting point for the analysis shall be the provisions of Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, through which we shall analyse the conditions for the admissibility of a reference for a preliminary ruling. We shall also highlight the importance of the role of the national court in analysing the usefulness of the referral to the CJEU, in relation to the subject matter of the dispute, as there is no obligation per se to refer. We have proposed this scientific approach as an observation of the superficiality with which national courts are increasingly granting requests for referral to the CJEU, without a rigorous analysis of both the express conditions of Article 267 TFEU and the usefulness of a possible response from the Court in the specific case.

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