How do we decide whether the courts of a Member State escape the Court of Justice of the European Union?

The preliminary reference procedure in Article 267 TFEU enables national courts to request the Court of Justice to provide a ruling on the interpretation or validity of an EU legal act. When considering the number of such preliminary references from different Member States, it will become immediately apparent that there are considerable variations. This presentation will consider whether it may be possible to identify structural factors (which may be contrasted to behavioural factors) that can explain these numerical differences. The presentation will argue that some—but not all—of the variations in number of references from Member State judiciaries may be attributed to structural factors rather than being merely a reflection of different Member State courts’ willingness to make use of Article 267 TFEU (i.e. behavioural factors).

Professor Morten Broberg holds the Jean Monnet Chair at the University of Copenhagen. He has held visiting positions in Strasbourg (Université Robert Schuman) and Munich (Max-Planck-Institute for Innovation and Competition). In 2014 Professor Broberg was awarded the Danish Elite-Researcher prize. Professor Broberg’s research is focused upon European Union law in general, as well as on the relations between the European Union and the developing countries.

The meeting will be held in Lecture Room VII, Brasenose College