A Reflection on the Methods of Interpretation of EU Law

Abstract In many legal systems, methods of interpretation are unwritten customary norms. As such, they depend on consistent practice of legal officials and their acceptance of those methods as binding. Among them, the most important are judges. The EU legal system is characterised by a two-tier judiciary, composed of the Court of Justice and national courts. The Court of Justice has the final word regarding the development of the methods of interpretation of EU law. National courts are required to accept and apply those methods when they interpret EU law on their own. This is essential for ensuring uniformity and effectiveness of EU law. The Court of Justice therefore needs to develop the methods of interpretation of EU law through a dialogue with national courts. How any method of interpretation will be employed in a particular case depends on moral and political values that inform their use. The inherent characteristic of the EU legal order is value pluralism. This means that although the same constitutional values are likely to be formally recognised in the EU and its Member States, their conceptions may nonetheless vary. To have uniform EU law that produces same effects in all Member States, national courts have to interpret EU law by using particular methods of interpretation informed by EU conceptions of values that are associated with those methods. So, these EU values likewise have to be shared by national courts whenever they interpret EU law. What these EU values are is determined not only by the Court of Justice in a dialogue with national courts, but with other institutional actors, supranational and national, in the EU legal order.