Article 47 - Right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial
Article 51 - Field of application
Article 52 - Scope and interpretation
Key facts of the case:
Reference for a preliminary ruling – Second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU – Effective legal protection in the fields covered by Union law – Independence of the judiciary – Tribunal previously established by law – Fair hearing – Case-law Registration Service – National legislation providing for a registrations judge to be established in courts of second instance having, in practice, the power to stay the delivery of a judgment, to give instructions to judicial panels and to request that a section meeting be convened – National legislation providing for the power, for meetings of a section or of all judges of a court, to put forward binding ‘legal positions’, including for cases which have already been deliberated
Outcome of the case:
The second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU
must be interpreted as precluding national law from providing for a mechanism internal to a national court pursuant to which:
– the judicial decision adopted by the judicial panel responsible for the case may be sent to the parties for the purpose of closing the case concerned only if its content has been approved by a registrations judge who is not a member of that judicial panel;
– a section meeting of that court has the power to compel, by putting forward a ‘legal position’, the judicial panel responsible for the case to alter the content of the judicial decision which it previously adopted, even though that section meeting also includes judges other than those belonging to that judicial panel and, as the case may be, persons from outside the court concerned, before whom the parties do not have the opportunity to put forward their arguments.
31. The scope of the Charter, in so far as the action of the Member States is concerned, is defined in Article 51(1) thereof, according to which the provisions of the Charter are addressed to the Member States when they are implementing EU law. That provision confirms settled case-law, which states that the fundamental rights guaranteed in the legal order of the European Union are applicable in all situations governed by EU law, but not outside such situations (judgment of 19 November 2019, A. K. and Others (Independence of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court), C‑585/18, C‑624/18 and C‑625/18, EU:C:2019:982, paragraph 78 and the case-law cited).
32. In the present case, as regards, more specifically, Article 47 of the Charter, the referring court has not provided any indication that the disputes in the main proceedings concern the interpretation or application of a rule of EU law being implemented at national level.
33. Therefore, in the present cases, the Court does not have jurisdiction to interpret Article 47 of the Charter per se.
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45. In that regard, the principle of effective judicial protection referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU is a general principle of EU law which has been enshrined, inter alia, in Article 6(1) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 (‘the ECHR’), to which the second paragraph of Article 47 of the Charter corresponds (see, to that effect, judgment of 21 December 2021, Euro Box Promotion and Others, C‑357/19, C‑379/19, C‑547/19, C‑811/19 and C‑840/19, EU:C:2021:1034, paragraph 219 and the case-law cited). That latter provision must, therefore, be duly taken into consideration for the purpose of interpreting the second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU (judgment of 6 October 2021, W.Ż. (Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs of the Supreme Court – Appointment), C‑487/19, EU:C:2021:798, paragraph 102 and the case-law cited).
46. Moreover, in so far as the Charter sets out rights corresponding to rights guaranteed under the ECHR, Article 52(3) of the Charter is intended to ensure the necessary consistency between the rights contained in the Charter and the corresponding rights guaranteed under the ECHR, without thereby adversely affecting the autonomy of EU law. According to the Explanations relating to the Charter of Fundamental Rights (OJ 2007 C 303, p. 17), the second paragraph of Article 47 of the Charter corresponds to Article 6(1) ECHR. The Court must, accordingly, ensure that its interpretation in the present cases ensures a level of protection which does not disregard that guaranteed by Article 6(1) ECHR, as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights (see, to that effect, judgment of 6 October 2021, W.Ż. (Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs of the Supreme Court – Appointment), C‑487/19, EU:C:2021:798, paragraph 123 and the case-law cited).
