An action takes place in three stages: the written procedure, the oral phase and the deliberations. The following example of an action for failure to fulfil obligations illustrates this course.

The Registry of the Court of Justice receives a large envelope from the European Commission. It contains an application that presents the Commission’s allegations against Spain in environmental matters. The registrar registers the application, has it translated into all the EU official languages and then publishes in the EU Official Journal a notice that details the Commission’s arguments. Spain is alleged to have failed to adopt provisions transposing into Spanish law a 2006 directive on the management of waste from the mining industry or to have failed to notify its measures to the Commission ahead of the deadline of 30 April 2008. It is decided that Spanish will be the language of the proceedings.

WRITTEN STAGE

According to the Treaty, this new case is an action for failure to fulfil obligations. The applicant, the European Commission, asks the court to establish that Spain, the defendant, has not complied with its obligations. The written stage is launched with the registration and other administrative formalities. It also includes the transmission and registration by the registrar of each party’s arguments. The application is served to the other party, which has one month to lodge a defence. Then the applicant has one month to reply and the defendant may answer this reply in a rejoinder. The Registry transmits the file containing the parties’ arguments to the rourt’s president and the first advocate-general, who will appoint a judge, judge-rapporteur and an advocate-general in charge of the case. The judge will be responsible for overseeing the case and the judge-rapporteur, acting independently, must propose a solution to the dispute.

ORAL STAGE

Once the written procedure is closed, the parties are asked to state whether they wish the court to hold a hearing. Based on a report by the judge-rapporteur and after hearing the advocate-general, the court decides on the formation of the court to which the case will be referred, eg a chamber of five judges, and whether there will be a hearing. The judge-rapporteur sums up the allegations and the parties’ arguments in a report for the hearing. This report is made public in the language of the proceedings at the hearing.

The case is argued at a public hearing, before the chamber of five judges plus the advocate-general and the registrar. The judges and the advocate-general may ask questions to the parties. Interpretation into as many languages as necessary is provided. A few weeks later, again at a public hearing, the advocate-general’s opinion is presented to the Court of Justice. It analyses in detail the legal and other aspects of the case and suggests a solution to the problem. The court is not bound by the advocate-general’s opinion. This marks the end of the oral stage of the case.

If the case is not considered to raise any new points of law and where case law is clear, the court may decide, once the advocate-general has presented his opinion, that the case will be judged without conclusions.

DELIBERATIONS

At this point, the judges engage in deliberations alone, without interpreters, in a common language, which traditionally is French. They deliberate on the basis of a draft judgement prepared by the judge-rapporteur. Each judge in the chamber may propose changes. The decisions of the Court of Justice are taken by majority. Judgements are signed by all the judges who have participated in the deliberations and their summary, the operative provisions, is delivered at a public hearing. There is an average of 17 months between the start of the case and the delivery of the judgement.

Judgements and conclusions of the advocates-general are available on the court’s website on the day they are delivered and later in the Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance.

The following table outlines the procedure before the Court of First Instance. The main difference resides in the fact that there is no permanent advocate-general at the CFI, but if the case requires, one of the judges of the formation of the court may play this role.

Court of First Instance procedure (*)

Direct actions and appeals

Written stage

Application

Service of the application to the defendant by the registrar

Notice of the action in the EU Official Journal (C series)

Assignment of the case to a formation of the court

Designation of the judge-rapporteur

Defence

[Objection of inadmissibility]

[Reply and rejoinder]

[Other pleadings]

The judge-rapporteur prepares the preliminary report

Chamber conference of the judges

[Measures of inquiry]

Oral stage

[ Report for the hearing; hearing]

Judges’ deliberation

Judgement

(*) Optional stages of the procedure are shown in brackets. Documents shown in bold type are those which in principle are public.