Acte clair theory

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The acte-clair theory ( French - unambiguous act ; also acte-clair or acte-clair doctrine ) states that a legal question does not have to be submitted to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) as part of a preliminary ruling if it is about the interpretation or validity of Union law, there can reasonably be no doubt.

Obligation to submit national courts

It is an unwritten exception to the submission obligation under Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), formerly Article 234 III of the EC Treaty .

Only the European Court of Justice can rule on the interpretation and validity of Union law. If a court of a member state of the European Union has to decide in the final instance on a matter in which the application of Union law is important, it must submit the relevant question to the ECJ in the event of doubts about the interpretation or validity of Union law ( submission ).

Principles of the CILFIT decision

In its CILFIT decision, the ECJ developed three groups of cases in which there is no obligation to submit:

(1) The ECJ has already ruled in an identical earlier case (acte éclairé).

(2) There is already a certain case law of the Court of Justice on this legal question (acte éclairé).

(3) The Union legal situation is so obvious that there is no room for reasonable doubt about the decision of the ECJ (acte clair).

In these cases there is no obligation to submit, as a submission would simply appear to be "pointless".

Consequences

In order to ensure the uniform interpretation of Union law nonetheless, increased cooperation between the Member State courts with the aim of "decision harmony" is required.

The plenary session of the EU Parliament adopted a resolution on June 14, 2018 in response to the EU Commission's report on monitoring the application of EU law in 2016. Among other things, it addresses the importance of requests for preliminary rulings for uniform interpretation and the application of Union law (margin no. 38) and called on the EU Commission to monitor more effectively whether the national courts are complying with their submission obligation regulated in Art. 267 TFEU. In this context, the German Lawyers' Association demands the creation of a non-submission register in which all submissions that have been refused due to the Acte Clair doctrine must be entered.

literature

  • Moris Lehner: The obligation to refer to the ECJ in preliminary ruling proceedings. In: Rudolf Mellinghoff, Wolfgang Schön, Hermann-Ulrich Viskorf: Tax law in the rule of law - Festschrift for Wolfgang Spindler on his 65th birthday. Cologne 2011, p. 329 ff.
  • on the influence of the acte clair doctrine on the arbitrary standard of the Federal Constitutional Court when examining the violation of the right to the legal judge by failure to submit to the ECJ in the case group "incompleteness of case law" Wolfgang Roth: Constitutional review of the obligation to submit to the ECJ. In: NVwZ . 2009, pp. 345-352.
  • Gregor Thüsing, Stephan Pötters, Johannes Traut: The ECJ as a legal judge i. S. of Art. 101 I 2 GG. In: NZA . 2010, pp. 930-933.
  • Morten Broberg, Niels Fenger: “Theory and Practice of the Acte Clair Doctrine of the ECJ.” In: EuR 2010, pp. 835–854.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ECJ, judgment of October 6, 1982, case 283/81, Coll. 1982, 3415 - CILFIT , margin no. 5, 13 ff.
  2. ↑ Ibid. Item 13 .; http://www.minilex.de/a/was-verhaben-man-unter-acte-clair-und-acte-%C3%A9clair%C3%A9
  3. ↑ Ibid. Item 14
  4. ↑ Ibid. Item 16; http://www.minilex.de/a/was-verhaben-man-unter-acte-clair-und-acte-%C3%A9clair%C3%A9
  5. ↑ Moris Lehner: The obligation to submit to the ECJ in preliminary ruling proceedings. In: Rudolf Mellinghoff, Wolfgang Schön, Hermann-Ulrich Viskorf: Tax law in the rule of law - Festschrift for Wolfgang Spindler on his 65th birthday. Cologne 2011, p. 329 (332).
  6. ↑ Ibid., P. 329 (342).
  7. ↑ Resolution of the European Parliament of 14 June 2018 on monitoring the application of EU law in 2016, P8_TA-PROV (2018) 0268, (2017/2273 (INI)).
  8. ↑ REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION, Monitoring the application of EU law - Annual Report 2016 , 6 July 2017, COM (2017) 370 final.
  9. ↑ Europe at a Glance, 24/18 .