The relationship between the preliminary ruling procedure and the question on constitutionality

Authors

  • Pedro Cruz Villalón
  • Juan Luis Requejo Pagés

Keywords:

Reference for a preliminary ruling. Article 267 TFUE, Interlocutory procedure for the review of constitutionality, Article 163 SC, Court of Justice of the European Union, Constitutional Court, Proceedings of preliminary normative control, Priority ques

Abstract

This article analyses the relationship between the preliminary ruling procedure  before the CJUE and the interlocutory procedures for the review of constitutionality in several Member States, with a focus on the Spanish system, in those cases where the two  incidents have their origin in the same judicial proceedings. For this purpose, we examine  the reasons of principle which, according to the respective legal systems, justify the priority  of each of these mechanisms of interlocutory normative control. Acknowledging the difficulty  to arrive at an entirely satisfactory solution from the perspective of both systems, this  article draws attention to another interest that is often insufficiently taken into account: that  of the litigants themselves. In this connection, and with the aim of preventing undue delay,  we point to the possibility for the judge to abandon, as far as possible, the criterion of temporal  succession, and instead, to operate under a criterion of simultaneity. 

Issue

Section

STUDIES