Procedures of the Court of Justice
There are three main procedures at the Court of Justice:
- Infringement proceedings against MS initiated by the Commission or other MS (Article 19 (3) (a) TEU, Article 258 to 260 TFEU)
- (Other) Direct actions against EU acts initiated by MS, institutions or individuals (Article 19 (3) (a) TEU, Article 263 TFEU)
- Preliminary reference procedures, initiated by Member State Courts (Article 19 (3) (b) TEU, Article 267 TFEU)
Only the Preliminary References procedure provides for a role of the domestic judge. In practice, infringement proceedings can also be very influential for the outcome of domestic proceedings, in particular as regards environmental law. In contrast, (other) direct actions are only rarely of interest to the domestic judge.