Procedure before the Court of Justice

It follows from the Court’s settled case-law that to allow a party to put forward for the first time before the Court of Justice, in an appeal, a plea in law which it has not raised before the General Court would be to allow it to bring before the Court, the appellate jurisdiction of which is limited, a dispute of wider ambit than that which came before the General Court.

1. Without prejudice to the special provisions laid down in the Statute or in
these Rules, the procedure before the Court shall consist of a written part
and an oral part.
2. Where it is clear that the Court has no jurisdiction to hear and determine a
case or where a request or an application is manifestly inadmissible, the
Court may, after hearing the Advocate General, at any time decide to give a
decision by reasoned order without taking further steps in the proceedings.

1. An appeal shall contain:
(a) the name and address of the appellant;
(b) a reference to the decision of the General Court appealed against;
(c) the names of the other parties to the relevant case before the General Court;
(d) the pleas in law and legal arguments relied on, and a summary of those pleas in law;
(e) the form of order sought by the appellant.

1. An appeal shall seek to have set aside, in whole or in part, the decision of the General Court as set out in the operative part of that decision.
2. The pleas in law and legal arguments relied on shall identify precisely those points in the grounds of the decision of the General Court which are contested

1. In the situations referred to in the first and second paragraphs of Article
58a of the Statute, the appellant shall annex to the appeal a request that the
appeal be allowed to proceed, setting out the issue raised by the appeal that
is significant with respect to the unity, consistency or development of
European Union law and containing all the information necessary to enable
the Court of Justice to rule on that request. If there is no such request, the
Vice-President of the Court shall declare the appeal inadmissible.

Where the appeal or cross-appeal is, in whole or in part, manifestly inadmissible or manifestly unfounded, the Court may at any time, acting on a proposal from the Judge-Rapporteur and after hearing the Advocate General, decide by reasoned order to dismiss that appeal or cross-appeal in whole or in part.

The Member States and the institutions of the Union shall be represented before the
Court of Justice by an agent appointed for each case; the agent may be assisted by an
adviser or by a lawyer.
The States, other than the Member States, which are parties to the Agreement on the
European Economic Area and also the EFTA Surveillance Authority referred to in
that Agreement shall be represented in same manner.
Other parties must be represented by a lawyer.
Only a lawyer authorised to practise before a court of a Member State or of another
State which is a party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area may
represent or assist a party before the Court.
Such agents, advisers and lawyers shall, when they appear before the Court, enjoy the
rights and immunities necessary to the independent exercise of their duties, under
conditions laid down in the Rules of Procedure.
As regards such advisers and lawyers who appear before it, the Court shall have the
powers normally accorded to courts of law, under conditions laid down in the Rules of
Procedure.
University teachers being nationals of a Member State whose law accords them a right
of audience shall have the same rights before the Court as are accorded by this Article
to lawyers.

Periods of grace based on considerations of distance shall be determined by the Rules
of Procedure.
No right shall be prejudiced in consequence of the expiry of a time limit if the party
concerned proves the existence of unforeseeable circumstances or of force majeure.