The Clarity of the Preliminary Ruling Procedure in the European Court of Justice as a Safeguard of Uniform Interpretation and Implementation of the European Union Law

Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) defines rules of organizing the preliminary ruling procedure. Under the article, when a question of validity and interpretation of acts of the institutions, bodies, offices or agencies of the Union is raised before any court or tribunal of a Member State, that court or tribunal may, if it considers that a decision on the question is necessary to enable it to give judgment, request the Court of Justice of the European Union to give a ruling thereon. In order to be able to effectively implement their right to request the Court of Justice to give preliminary ruling, the courts or tribunals of the Member States should comprehend the nature and the main elements of this procedure. The Court of Justice enjoys an exclusive jurisdiction over the interpretation of the EU law. This thesis examines jurisprudence of the Court of Justice which, case by case, determines the content of the EU law regulating the preliminary ruling procedure and provides clarity for the courts and tribunals of the Member States. The aim of this thesis is to analyse main elements of the preliminary ruling procedure, their interaction and legal consequences defined in jurisprudence of the Court of Justice as well as demonstrate how Court’s interpretation of the EU law contributed to the uniformity of interpretation and implementation of the EU law in the entire European Union. The thesis concludes by suggesting that jurisprudence of the Court of Justice enables the courts and tribunals of the Member States to effectively implement their right defined in Article 267 TFEU and/or fulfil their obligations, contributes to the clarity of the EU law and helps the courts and tribunals of the Member States to render the final judgement in cases where the questions of interpretation of the EU law were raised