What are the E.U.'s courts?
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is the judicial
branch of the European Union (EU). Seated in the Kirchberg quarter of
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, this EU institution consists of two
separate courts: the Court of Justice and the General Court. From 2005
to 2016 it also contained the Civil Service Tribunal. It has a sui
generis court system, meaning 'of its own kind', and is a
supranational institution. . . .
The CJEU consists of two major courts:
the Court of Justice, informally known as European Court of Justice (ECJ), which hears applications from national courts for preliminary
rulings, annulment and appeals. It consists of one judge from each EU
member country, as well as 11 advocates general.
the General Court, which hears applications for annulment from individuals, companies and, less commonly, national governments
(focusing on competition law, state aid, trade, agriculture and trade
marks). Since 2020 the court is composed of 54 judges, though only 49
seats are currently filled. . . .
The CJEU's specific mission is to ensure that "the law is observed"
"in the interpretation and application" of the Treaties of the
European Union. To achieve this, it:
reviews the legality of actions taken by the EU's institutions;
enforces compliance by member states with their obligations under the Treaties, and
interprets European Union law.
The composition and functioning of the courts are regulated by the
Rules of Procedure.
(Source)
How do the European Union's courts handle precedents?
The development of a de facto precedent in EU law has recently been
the subject of significant academic debate. There is no official
doctrine of precedent in EU law — historically, a doctrine of
binding precedent would have been entirely inappropriate in what was
originally a court of first and last resort.
(Source)
The difficulty of having binding precedent in a court like the E.U. Court of Justice that is both a court of first instance and a supreme appellate court in many cases, continues to be an issue, although decisions of the general court of the Court of Justice of the European Union doesn't face a structural impediment to having a system of Court of Justice precedents to which it must adhere.
The is actually a European civic movement seeking to change the status quo and establish a formal notion of precedent in all E.U. countries in order to make law in the E.U. more uniform, at least as applied to subject within the domain of E.U. authority. The movements self-description of the issue helps clarify the situation:
Even if it seems strange to many citizens, in most EU states there is
no notion of judicial precedent. Thus, the courts are not bound by
judicial precedents in any way, in practice there are numerous
examples where exactly the same case (for example, abuse clauses in
contracts), with the same defendant, even with the same lawyers, are
judged differently by different courts.
Our NGO fights for democracy and human rights and has several lawsuits
with the Romanian state. We spent many hours studying jurisprudence
and not a few times it happened to us that we received a decision that
was in total disagreement with another one that we had invoked.
This state of fact obviously violates Art. 20 (Equality before the
law) and Art. 47 (Right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial) of
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. If the same law is interpreted
differently by different courts, not only is the law not the same for
everyone, but the process is not fair either.
To claim the uniform application of the law, civil law systems offer
certain mechanisms but which are not available to the litigant, he
cannot initiate them. Even more, litigants cannot profit from such a
mechanism, this having effect only for the future.
Our goal is to start a European civic initiative to try to get the
Commission to issue a directive by which the notion of judicial
precedent will be effectively enforced.
We are aware that the legal systems and traditions in the EU states
are different, that's why we don't ask for the implementation of a
certain form.
But what we do ask is for the litigant to have a concrete way to
invoke a judicial proceeding and for there to be certain consequences
if a judge decides to ignore a judicial precedent (recommendations are
not enough, they are ignored many times and when it matters the most).
Also, keep in mind that the European Court of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human RightsEuropean Convention on Human Rights are not part of the E.U., they are part of the Council of EuropeCouncil of Europe, which is a separate international organization from the E.U. with 46 member states.
In particular, the European Convention on Human Rights is a different instrument than the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was proclaimed on December 7, 2000, but didn't gain full legal force until the Treaty of Lisbon took effect on December 1, 2009.
