Summary

A person who refers to the court because he/she believes that his/her rights have been violated is often faced with a problem: taking into account the duration of court proceedings, even an eventual positive decision may not mean that the effective protection of his/her rights is possible any more. This is why the codes of procedures – in Estonia, the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Administrative Procedure – foresee a special institute, which can be used to provisionally regulate a disputed legal relationship, before the final resolution of the basic claim. In Estonia this institution is called securing an action in civil court procedure, and interim legal protection in administrative court procedure. Despite the differing terms, slightly differing procedures, and the applied protective means, it is an institute that fulfils the same purpose.

Since the European Court of Justice, similarly to national courts, may apply preliminary legal protection, which in the European Court of Justice is called the application of temporary measures, it would be interesting and relevant to examine what the European Court of Justice takes into account in applying temporary measures, and following on from this, whether it is also possible, in national court procedure, for a person, in substantiating the preliminary application for legal protection, or for the court in its decision, to rely indirectly on the principles that have been developed in the practice of the European Court of Justice. The purpose of this article is therefore to analyse the institution of temporary measures that is applied in the procedures of the European Court of Justice.