National courts, the application of EC law & the European Parliament hearing

The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliaent recently held an interesting hearing on "The role of the national judge in the judicial system of the European Union".

A questionnaire was sent out covering different aspects of the involvement of national courts in the application of EC law. Then judges from England, Hungary, Romania and Germany made statements at the public meeting chaired by Diana Wallis, MEP.

Fortunately, the Council has made public a brief but interesting summary of the submissions of the different judges.

Interestingly, Lord Justice Rix of the English Court of Appeal mentioned in his contribution the difficulty encountered in England in applying the abstract rulings of the Court of Justice in preliminary reference cases to the factual situation in the case. Judge Marosi from Hungary highlighted the difficulty of national courts coming o grips with the enormous volume of EC law. Judge Girbovan from Romania stated that the application of EC law was made difficult because the principles of primacy of EC law and of direct effect were not laid down in legislation. Judge Lünemann from Germany explained that in German law the parties could not be expected to invoke EC law and thus it was left to the national court to apply it ex officio.

Diana Wallis will draft an own-initiative report for the European Parliament on the subject in the near future.