Summary

Preliminary rulings of the European Court of Justice have an important role in the application of the EC law. The author provides a brief overview of the nature of preliminary rulings as well as of the provisions of the founding treaties which provide for the legal basis therefor, of secondary community legislation regulating requests for preliminary rulings and of general guidelines, based on rulings of the European Court of Justice, for requesting such rulings. In depth, the author analyses different ways of interpreting the objects of preliminary rulings – the EC Treaty, acts of the institutions of the Community, statutes of bodies established by an act of the Council, international agreements of the EU and decisions of bodies set up under such agreements. Based on the type of the object, a preliminary ruling may interpret or ascertain the validity of an act.
Further, the author addresses the procedure and conditions for requesting preliminary rulings and explains the substantive and formal bases for such requests, and the requirements for the judicial authorities entitled to request preliminary rulings and their scope of discretion in doing so. The author also examines the effect of preliminary rulings on the national legal order by giving an overview of the practice of referral of questions for a preliminary ruling in the Member States of the European Union and scrutinises the relations between the European Court of Justice and the national legal systems in proceedings involving preliminary rulings. The author raises the question how the procedure for requesting a preliminary ruling fits into the Estonian legal order, what Estonian judges should know about the procedure already now and what they should be aware of in the future.