The General Court – how the procedure works

The Statute, Rules of Procedure and official texts

The main principles governing General Court procedure are laid down in the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Detailed rules can be found in the Rules of Procedure and in the Practice rules for their implementation. These rules are supplemented by other official decisions and texts.

You can find all of these documents on our page on Procedural Texts.

The following is a brief guide to how the procedure works. If you are bringing a case to the General Court, please read the full rules of procedure.

Lodging a case

Cases are lodged with the General Court Registry. This department is the point of contact for parties to cases and national judges and is responsible for the procedural management of cases.

Cases have to be lodged by lawyers acting for the applicant, the party that wishes to start the case. The lawyer lodging the case must be licensed to practise before a court of an EU or EEA Member State.

References for a preliminary ruling falling into the jurisdiction of the General Court are transferred to it from the Court of Justice. All references for preliminary rulings must first be sent to the Court of Justice.

The language of the case

An important feature of the procedure is the language of the case.

Being able to bring a case to court in a language that you understand and being able to read judgments is a fundamental part of democracy and the rule of law.

Therefore, the General Court works in all 24 official EU languages. Cases can be brought in any of these languages and all communication with parties is in the language of the case.

This language is determined when the case arrives at the General Court.

In direct actions, the language of the case is the language chosen by the applicant. If the defendant is a Member State, it must be one of the official languages of that State.

In intellectual property cases, the applicant can choose the language of the case. However, if that language is different from the language used before EU Intellectual Property Office’s Board of Appeal, the parties to the case before the Board of Appeal can object. They can then ask for the language to be changed to that used before the Board of Appeal.

For references for a preliminary ruling, the language of the case is the language of the national court that referred the questions.

The Court of Justice of the European Union is the only court in the world that works in this many languages.

The first steps and written procedure

Direct Actions

When the case arrives, the Registry prepares a summary of the applicant’s claims and arguments. This is translated into all the other 23 official EU languages and published in the Official Journal of the European Union and in the case-law database on the Court’s website.

The full application is served on the defendant(s). They have two months to lodge their defence.

Any person establishing a legal interest in the outcome of the case can also intervene. Interventions must be made in support of one or other of the parties. It is not possible to submit general observations. This is done via a statement of intervention. The parties to the case can respond to this.

In intellectual property cases, there is only one exchange of written arguments. In other cases, a second round of written arguments, known as a reply and a rejoinder, can then take place. The reply is the applicant’s chance to respond to the arguments of the defendant. The rejoinder gives the defendant the opportunity to respond to this.

In principle, these documents are not available to the public.

References for a preliminary ruling

The Court’s translation service translates the request from the national court. The Registry then officially notifies the parties involved in the national case. It also sends a copy of the request to the Member States and EU institutions.

The request from the national court is published in the case-law database on the Court’s website.

A notice of the case is published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The parties to the national case, Member States, the Commission, and other EU institutions who consider they have a particular interest in the case, can then submit observations to the General Court. These observations are not public documents at this stage. After the case has been closed, unless an objection is raised, these observations are published in the case-law database.

Assigning a Chamber and Judge-Rapporteur

At the same time, the President assigns the case to a Chamber, taking into account a series of criteria. In intellectual property and staff cases the President takes into account the different specialisations of the Chambers. A Judge-Rapporteur is appointed. It is this Judge who will follow the case most closely and who will draft the judgment.

References for a preliminary ruling transferred to the General Court are assigned to one of two specialised Chambers. These cases are heard by five Judges. The Opinion is given by the Advocate General from the other specialised Chamber. 

Preliminary report

After the written procedure is closed, parties can request for a hearing to be held.

The Judge-Rapporteur prepares a preliminary report, setting out the facts and arguments of all those involved and an initial analysis of the issues raised. This is not a public document.

Based on this report, the Chamber hearing the case decides whether to progress with the case as a 3-judge Chamber. If it proposes to increase the number, the General Court decides whether this should happen. The Chamber also decides whether a hearing is needed.

If the Court decides to hold a hearing, the President of the Chamber fixes a date and the parties are informed.

Measures of organisation and inquiry

The General Court also decides whether any further information is needed before the case proceeds. These are called “Measures of organisation and inquiry”. The most common of these is asking parties to answer written questions before the hearing or at the hearing, or producing certain documents.

The hearing

If the General Court decides to hold a hearing for a direct action, before it takes place, the Judge-Rapporteur may prepare a document called the “Report for the Hearing”. This document outlines the facts of the case and the arguments of the parties and interveners. It is available to the public on the day of the hearing, in the language of the case.

The hearing happens in the Court’s hearing rooms in Luxembourg. It can also take place by video-conference in exceptional circumstances. The lawyers and representatives of the parties come and argue the case before the Judges. The Judges can ask questions if they wish.

This hearing is public.

The Advocate General’s Opinion

If an Opinion has been requested in a reference for a preliminary ruling, it is delivered after the hearing. The Advocate General prepares their Opinion and reads it out in open court. Some Opinions are also streamed live via the Court’s website. The Opinion analyses the case and suggests a solution to the problems raised in order to assist the General Court. These Opinions are, however, not binding.  

The Opinion is published in the case-law database on the Court’s website.

This is the end of the oral phase of the proceedings.

Deliberations and drafting the judgment

The Judge-Rapporteur prepares a draft judgment, taking into account all that has been said throughout the procedure.

This draft judgment is the starting point for a discussion among the Judges, known as the deliberation. Advocates General do not take part in the deliberation.

The deliberation is confidential and takes place with no assistants or interpreters. Because of this, the Judges must deliberate in a common language. Traditionally, this is French.

Based on these discussions, the Judges agree on a single judgment. If necessary, decisions are made by a majority. There are no dissenting opinions or minority judgments. The result of any vote is not made public.

Judgments

Judgments are then translated. For more information on which judgments are translated and into which languages see our multilingualism policy. All judgments are available in at least the language of the case and the language in which they were drafted, which is French.

The judgments are delivered in open court. Some judgments are streamed live via the Court’s website.

The judgments are available in the case-law database of the Court’s website on the day of delivery.

Most judgments are then also published in the European Court Reports, the official record of Court judgments. For more information see our page about the European Court Reports.

Special types of procedure

The General Court also has some special types of procedure to help it deal efficiently with different situations.

The expedited procedure

The expedited procedure allows the General Court to give its rulings quickly in very urgent cases. To do this the time limits for each part of the procedure are reduced as much as possible. These cases are also prioritised.

The parties or the national court can ask for this procedure. The General Court decides whether to grant the request.

The Court can also decide to do this without being asked by the parties.

Applications for interim measures

Bringing a case before the General Court does not suspend the effects of the decision being challenged.

However, a party can ask the Court, through a special procedure, to suspend the act being challenged until the case is resolved.

For such a suspension to be granted, three conditions must be met.

• The applicant must, at first sight, appear to have a least a reasonable argument to challenge the act in question.
• If the decision were not suspended as matter of urgency, the applicant would suffer serious and irreparable harm.
• Suspension must be in the balance of interest of all involved and in the public interest.

These decisions are made by Order of the President or Vice-President of the General Court. They in no way decide the merits of the case. This will be decided later by the General Court.

These Orders can be appealed to the Court of Justice.

How much does it cost?

The Court charges no fees to bring a case.

However, the Court does not pay for the lawyers hired by the parties. In principle, the losing party is ordered to pay all, or a percentage, of the costs of the successful party. When disputes arise as to the precise amounts to be paid, the General Court takes a decision. Interveners must pay their own costs.

If a party cannot afford to pay for a lawyer, it is possible to apply for legal aid. For more information on this, see our page about legal aid .