Parental responsibility in a cross-border context

Procedure at the European Court of Justice

The Court’s procedure is governed by the Rules of Procedure of the European Court of Justice. Once the Registry has received the reference from the national court, it is translated and communicated to the Member States and the institutions and forms the basis of the Court’s proceedings. The European Court of Justice will not investigate the facts of the case for itself. It accepts the statement of the national court which has jurisdiction over these issues on the underlying factual context of the reference.

Under Article 20 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union OJ [2010] C83/210 there are two stages in the procedure at the European Court of Justice, the written stage and the oral stage:

• The written procedure consists of the communication to the parties and to the institutions of the applications, statements of case, defences and observations.
• The oral procedure consists of a hearing of counsel, the reading of a report by the Judge-Rapporteur and the hearing of counsel, and any witnesses and experts, and the submissions of the Advocate-General.
• The Advocate-General issues an Opinion on the questions submitted for a preliminary reference, which does not bind the European Court of Justice, but may explain and support the reasoning of the Court.
• Both the Advocate-General’s Opinion and the European Court of Justice’s judgment will be directed at answering the questions posed by the national court in the preliminary reference. The questions are the central aspect of the process and will form the basis of the Court’s ruling.