Judicial Reform and the European Court: Not a Numbers Game

Abstract

Judicial Reform and the European Court: Not a Numbers Game examines the reforms, and major proposals for reform, of the European Union court. The most successful reforms have been initiated by the Court of Justice itself, concerned about its burgeoning workload, and have comprised either increasing the number of judges, or establishing a new judicial body competent at first instance for direct actions. The latter approach led first to the setting up of the General Court, and subsequently a specialized court. The Court has now changed tack, and the number of General Court judges has been doubled. To address the rising volume of preliminary ruling requests, an ‘EU Appeals’ procedure is proposed, allowing the Court of Justice largely to control its own workload. It would be a radical change, designed to break the mould before the mould breaks the system.