National Judges and European Judges

Abstract

The Treaty of Rome grants judges varied and complementary judicial functions in order to guarantee, on the one hand, the unity of European Law and, on the other, its efficient application which respects national procedures. On the one hand, according to the Treaty, The European Union Court must guarantee the expected unity of European law and, on the other, national judges, whose legitimacy is founded on their national legal order which is most often constitutional, must apply European Law in the disputes they try. As European judges of common law, they naturally face the difficulties related to harmonising European law with national law. They must also ensure a continual balance between respecting one’s own national legal order and developing “integrated law”.

Keywords

• national judges
• european judges
• balance of legal orders