EU Procedural Law

The European Union is unique amongst international organizations in that it has a highly developed and coherent system of judicial protection. The rights derived from Union law can be enforced in court, as opposed to other international organizations whereby enforceability is often far less certain. At the heart of the system of judicial protection in the European Union is the core principle of upholding the rule of law. As such, the stakes are high in the sense that the system of the judicial protection in the European Union must live up to its promise in which individuals, Member States and Union institutions are all guaranteed a route by which to enforce Union law rights.

This book provides a rigorously structured analysis of the EU system of judicial protection and procedure before the Union courts. It examines the role and the competences of the Union courts and the types of actions that may be brought before them, such as the actions for infringement, annulment, and failure to act, as well as special forms of procedure, for example interim relief, appeals, and staff cases. In doing so, special attention is given to the fields of EU competition law and State aid. In addition it evaluates the relationship between the Court of Justice and the national courts through the preliminary ruling procedure and the interplay between EU law and the national procedural frameworks generally. Throughout, it takes account of significant institutional developments, including the relevant changes brought by the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the amendments to the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice and the General Court.

Koen Lenaerts, Vice President of the Court of Justice and Professor of European Law, European Union and University of Leuven,Ignace Maselis,Legal Secretary, Court of Justice of the European Union, Court of Justice of the European Union,Kathleen Gutman,Affiliated Senior Researcher, Institute for European Law and University of Leuven, Institute for European Law and University of Leuven

Koen Lenaerts is a Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union since 2003 and Vice President of the Court since 2012. He was a Judge of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities. He is also a Professor of EU Law at the University of Leuven. Among his extensive scientific activities, he is a member of the boards of several internationally recognized legal journals, the Board of Trustees of the Academy of European Law, Trier, and the Advisory Council of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.


Ignace Maselis has been working as a referendaire since 1993 first at the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (now the General Court of the European Union) and presently at the Court of Justice of the European Union. He practiced EU law at the Brussels bar between 1987 and 1993. He holds a Lic. Jur. from the University of Leuven and an LL.M. from the University of Chicago.


Dr. Kathleen Gutman is an American-trained lawyer specialising in EU and International Law and the comparative study of EU-US law. She has been awarded several advanced legal degrees from American and European institutions, including a J.D./LL.M. in International, Foreign, and Comparative Law from Duke University School of Law, as well as a M.A. in European Studies and a Ph.D. in Law from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. She has also worked as a summer associate in the Brussels office of Van Bael & Bellis and as a litigation associate in the New York office of Jones Day.


Janek Tomasz Nowak is a doctoral candidate in Law at the University of Leuven. He also teaches EU Law at the MCI Management Center Innsbruck, Austria. His main research interests include EU Procedural, Constitutional, and Administrative Law. He holds a Lic. Jur. and Cand. Jur. from the University of Antwerp, and an LL.M. from King's College London. He previously worked as a trainee at the Court of Justice of the European Union.