Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Top EU Court Adopts New Rules to Rein In Repeat Appeals

Changing its rules on repeat appeals, the European Court of Justice said Tuesday that cases will not be considered a third time unless they implicate an issue “that is significant with respect to the unity, consistency or development of EU law.”

(CN) - Changing its rules on repeat appeals, the European Court of Justice said Tuesday that cases will not be considered a third time unless they implicate an issue “that is significant with respect to the unity, consistency or development of EU law.”

A woman walks by the entrance to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Oct. 5, 2015. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

The announcement from the Luxembourg-based court says cases that have already been considered twice — first by an independent appeals board, then by the General Court — tend to return for a third go. For the most part, those appeals fail as inadmissible or manifestly unfounded, but the Court of Justice said it is adopting procedures for such cases now so it can “concentrate on the cases that require its full attention.”

The new protocol announced today will take effect Wednesday. 

Going forward, the Court of Justice will have to sign off before a party can appeal a decision of the General Court concerning a decision of an independent board of appeal from four entities.

Those offices and agencies are the European Union Intellectual Property Office in Alicante, Spain; the Community Plant Variety Office in Angers, France; the European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki, Finland; and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency in Cologne, Germany.

Appeals of such cases must be accompanied by a request, no longer than 7 pages, “in which the appellant sets out, clearly, the issue raised by the appeal that is significant with respect to the unity, consistency or development of EU law.”

“If there is no such request, the appeal itself will be declared inadmissible,” the court added. The Court of Justice said it will rule as soon as possible, if those requirements are met, on whether the appeal can proceed.

“That decision will be taken, on a proposal from the judge-rapporteur and after hearing the advocate general, by a chamber specially established for that purpose, presided over by the vice-president of the court and including also the judge-rapporteur and the president of the chamber of three judges to which the judge-rapporteur is attached on the date on which the request is made.”

Next the court will specify the order that the appeal should be allowed and “the pleas in law or parts of the appeal to which the response must relate.”

Assuming they were not parties to the initial proceedings, the member states, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission will learn along with the General Court from the Registrar of the Court of Justice whether the appeal is going forward. 

Follow @bleonardcns
Categories / Appeals, Courts, International

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...