Justice.eu

The History of European Court of Justice

The European court of Justice was established in 1952, by the Treaty of Paris (1951) as part of the European Coal and Steel Community. It was established with seven judges, allowing both representation of each of the six member States and being an unequal number of judges in case of a tie. One judge was appointed from each member state and the seventh seat rotated between the “large Member States” (Germany, France and Italy). It became an institution of two additional Communities in 1957 when the Treaties of Rome established the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).
The Court of Justice emerged originally from the ECSC. Its role has been to pronounce over supranational law common to all members of the EEC and its successors, the European Community and the European Union. In this role, it has often been described as a ‘motor’ for European integration, since it created a quasi-constitutional legal order that was at best implied in the founding treaties of the EEC and its successors.

In 1963, it established the doctrine of direct effect in its Van Gend en Loos decision, which stated that European Community law was directly applicable to citizens of European member states. This was followed by the 1964 Costa v. Enel pronouncement of supremacy, which stated that European Community law took precedence over national law. With the importance of the ECJ thus established, the 1970s saw a large upsurge in ECJ pronouncements, which were made with reference to Art. 177 of the Treaty of Rome. This stipulated that national and regional courts could directly refer legal decisions to the ECJ for an opinion of its compatibility with European law.

The 1980s saw a number of challenges in the supreme courts of EC member states to the principle that EC law was supreme over national law even on constitutional matters. But by the late 1990s all supreme courts had accepted the constitutional status of European Union law, albeit not unconditionally. The activism and success of the ECJ led to lively discussions as to whether a European Constitutional Convention was desirable, or even necessary. The ECJ with its seat in Luxemburg is not to be confused with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with its seat in Strasburg. When in 1993 the Maastricht Treaty created the European Union, the name of the court did not change like the other institutions, as its powers were still primarily over the European Community pillar of the union.

Luxembourg was chosen as the provisional seat of the Court on 1952-07-23 with the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community. Its first hearing there was held on 1954-10-28 in a building down as Villa Vauban, the seat until 1959 when it would move to the Côte d’Eich building and then to the Palais building in 1972.

In 1965 the member states established Luxembourg as the permanent seat of the Court. Future judicial bodies (Court of First Instance and Civil Service Tribunal) would also be based in the city. The decision was confirmed by the European Council at Edinburgh in 1992. However there was no reference to future bodies being in Luxembourg. In reaction to this, the Luxembourgian government issued its own declaration stating it did not surrender those provisions agreed upon in 1965. The Edinburgh decision was attached to the Amsterdam Treaty. With the Treaty of Nice Luxembourg attached a declaration stating it did not claim the seat of the Boards of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market – even if it were to become a judicial body.