1994Q0322 — EN — 28.04.2001 — 001.001 — 1
This document is meant purely as a documentation tool and the institutions do not assume any liability for its contents
►B INSTRUCTIONSTOTHEREGISTRAROFTHECOURTOFFIRSTINSTANCE
of3March1994
(OJ L 78, 22.3.1994, p. 32)
Amended by:
Official Journal
No page date
►M1Amendments to the Instructions to the Registrar of the Court of First
Instance of 29 March 2001L 119 2 27.4.2001
NB: This consolidated version contains references to the European unit of account and/or the ecu, which from 1 January 1999
should be understood as references to the euro — Council Regulation (EEC) No 3308/80 (OJ L 345, 20.12.1980, p. 1) andCouncil Regulation (EC) No 1103/97 (OJ L 162, 19.6.1997, p. 1).
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INSTRUCTIONS TO THE REGISTRAR OF THE COURT OF
FIRSTINSTANCE
of3March1994
THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
On a proposal from the President of the Court of First Instance,
Having regard to the Rulesof Procedure adopted on 2 May 1991 and
in particular Article 23 thereof,
Haslaid down the following:
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE REGISTRAR
Article 1
ThetasksoftheRegistrar
The Registrar shall be responsible for the maintenance of the register
of the Court and the files of pending cases, for the acceptance, trans-mission, service and custody of documents, for correspondence with
the parties and third parties in relation to pending cases, and for the
custody of the seals of the Court. He shall ensure that registry chargesare collected and that sums due to the Court treasury are recovered. Heshall be responsible for the publications of the Court.
Article 2
OpeninghoursoftheRegistry
1. The offices of the Registry shall be open to the public every
working day.
All daysother than Saturdays , Sundaysand the official holidayson the
list referred to in Article 101 (2) of the Rules of Procedure shall beworking days.
If a working day asreferred to in the previouss ubparagraphsisa
holiday for the officials and servants of the institution, arrangementsshall be made for a skeleton staff to be on duty at the Registry duringthe hoursin which it isnormally open to the public.
2. The Registry shall be open to the public at the following times:
— in the morning, from Monday to Friday, from 9.30 a.m. to 12 noon,
— in the afternoon, from Monday to Thursday, from 2.30 p.m. to 5.30
p.m. and, except during the vacationsprovided for in Article 34 (1)
of the Rulesof Procedure, on Fridaysfrom 2.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.
The Registry shall be open to the public half an hour before the
commencement of a hearing.
3. When the Registry is closed, procedural documents may be
validly lodged with the janitor at the entrancesto the Court buildingsat any time of the day or night. The janitor shall make a record, whichshall constitute good evidence, of the date and time of such lodgmentand shall issue a receipt upon request.
Article 3
Theregister
1. Judgmentsand ordersaswell asall the documentsplaced on the
file in cases brought before the Court shall be entered in the register.
2. Entries in the register shall be numbered consecutively; they shall
be made in the language of the case and contain the information neces-sary for identifying the document, in particular the date of registration,the number of the case and the nature of the document.
3. Where a correction ismade to the regis ter, a note to that effect
shall be made ►
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If the register is kept in electronic form, it shall be set up and main-
tained in such a way that no registration can be deleted therefrom andthat following any amendment or rectification the original entry is
preserved.
4. The registration number of every document drawn up by the
Court shall be noted on its first page.
A note of the registration, indicating the registration number and the
date of entry in the register, shall be stamped on the original of every
procedural document lodged by the partiesand on every copy which isnotified to them. ►
M1This note shall be in the language of the case.
The note made on the original of the procedural document shall besigned by the Registrar. ◄
5. When a document is not entered in the register on the same day
on which it islodged, the date of lodgment s hall be entered in the
register and stamped on the original and on the copies of the proce-dural document concerned.
6. For the purposes of the application of the previous paragraph, the
following datess hall be taken into account, depending on the circum-stances: the date on which the procedural document was received by
the Registrar or by a Registry official or employee, the date referred
to in Article 2 (3) or, in the cases provided for in the first paragraphof Article 47 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice, the first para-graph of Article 47 of the ECSC Statute of the Court of Justice and thefirst paragraph of Article 48 of the EAEC Statute of the Court ofJustice, the date on which the procedural document was lodged with
the Registrar of the Court of Justice.
Article 4
Thecasenumber
1. When an application initiating proceedings is registered, the case
shall be given a serial number preceded by ‘T-’ and followed by anindication of the year.
Applications for interim measures, applications to intervene, applica-
tionsfor rectification or interpretation of judgments , applicationsfor
revision or initiating third-party proceedings, applications for the taxa-
tion of costs and applications for legal aid relating to pending casesshall be given the same serial number as the principal action, followedby a note to indicate that the proceedingsconcerned are s pecial formsof procedure. An action which ispreceded by an application for legalaid in connection therewith shall be given the same case number as the
latter. Where the Court of Justice refers a case back to the Court of
First Instance following an appeal, that case shall keep the numberpreviously given to it when it was before the Court of First Instance.
2. The serial number of the case together with the names of the
parties shall be indicated on the procedural documents, in correspon-dence relating to the case and, without prejudice to Article 17 (4) of
these Instructions, in the publications of the Court of First Instance.
Article 5
Thefile andaccesstothefile
1. The case-file shall contain the originals, including their annexes,
of the procedural documentsproduced by the parties , with the excep-tion of those whose acceptances is refused pursuant to Article 6 ofthese Instructions, the decisions taken in the case, including any deci-sions relating to refusal to accept documents, reports for the hearing,
minutes of the hearing, notices served by the Registrar and any other
documents or correspondence to be taken into consideration in decidingthe case.
If in doubt the Registrar shall refer the question whether a document is
to be placed on the case-file to the President in order for a decision tobe taken.1994Q0322 — EN — 28.04.2001 — 001.001 — 3
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2. The documents contained in the file shall be given a serial
number.►M1 ◄
3. The lawyersor agentsof the partiesto a cas e before the Court or
persons duly authorized by them may inspect the original case-file,
including administrative files produced before the Court, at theRegistry and may request copies or extracts of procedural documentsand of the register.
Lawyersor agentsof intervening partiesonce granted leave to inter-
vene and lawyers or agents of all the parties to joined cases shall
have the same right of access to case-files, subject to the provisions
of paragraph 4 relating to the confidential treatment of certain mattersor documentson the file.
No third party, private or public, may have access to the case-file or to
the procedural documentswithout the expres sauthorization of thePresident, after the parties have been heard. That authorization may be
granted only upon written request accompanied by a detailed explana-
tion of the third party's legitimate interest in inspecting the file.
4. An application by a party for certain mattersor certain documents
on the file to be treated confidentially must be made by a separatedocument. The application must specify the confidential matters orpassages, explain why each matter or passage concerned is confidential
and be accompanied by a copy of the pagesconcerned of the pleading
or annex in question, with an indication of the matters or passages inrespect of which confidential treatment is requested.
If certain mattersor certain documentson the file are accorded confi-
dential treatment, the Registrar shall, where necessary, request thepartiesto produce, in accordance with the decis ion of the Court, non-
confidential versions of their pleadings together with the number of
certified copiesrequired by Article 43 (1) of the Rulesof Procedure.
The confidential and non-confidential versions of procedural docu-
ments shall be kept in separate sections of the file. Access to theconfidential section of the file shall be confined to the parties in respectof whom no confidential treatment hasbeen ordered.
5. At the close of the proceedings, the case-file shall be closed and
bound. The closed file shall contain a list of the documents on the file,an indication of their number, and a cover page showing the serialnumber of the case, the parties and the date on which the file wasclosed.
Article 6
Non-acceptanceofdocumentsandregularization
1. The Registrar shall ensure that documents placed on the file are
in conformity with the provisions of the Statutes of the Court of
Justice, with the Rules of Procedure ►
M1, with any practice direc-
tions adopted by the Court of First Instance ◄and with these
Instructions. If necessary, he shall allow the parties a period of timefor making good any formal irregularitiesin the documentslodged.
2. The Registrar shall refuse to register pleadings or procedural
documentswhich are not provided for by the Rulesof Procedure. If
in doubt the Registrar shall refer the matter to the President in orderfor a decision to be taken.
3. Without prejudice to ►
M1Article 43(6) of the Rulesof Proce-
dure, asto the lodgment of documentsby telefax or other technicalmeansof communication ◄, the Registrar shall accept only documents
bearing the original signature of the party's lawyer or agent.
The Registrar may request the lodgment of a lawyer's or agent's
specimen signature, if necessary certified as a true specimen, in orderto enable him to verify that the first paragraph of Article 43 (1) of theRulesof Procedure hasbeen complied with.
4. Documentsannexed to a pleading or procedural document s hall
be accepted only if the document in question is mentioned in the1994Q0322 — EN — 28.04.2001 — 001.001 — 4
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body of the pleading or procedural document and appearsin a s chedule
of annexes, as provided for by Article 43 (4) of the Rules of Procedure.The schedule of annexes must indicate the annex numbers and the
datesand nature of the documentsannexed.
If the party concerned failsto make good the irregularity, the Regis trar
may refuse to accept annexes not in conformity with the provisions ofthisparagraph.
5. Save in the cases expressly provided for by the Rules of Proce-
dure, the Registrar shall refuse to accept pleadings or proceduraldocumentsof the partiesdrawn up in a language other than thelanguage of the case.
Where documentsannexed to a pleading or procedural document are
not accompanied by a translation into the language of the case, theRegistrar shall require the party concerned to make good the omissionif the translation appears necessary for the efficient conduct of theproceedings.
Where an application to intervene originating from a third party other
than a Member State isnot drawn up in the language of the cas e, theRegistrar shall require the application to be put in order before it isplaced on the file and served on the parties. If, however, a version ofsuch an application drawn up in the language of the case is lodged
within the period prescribed for this purpose by the Registrar, the date
on which the first version, not in the language of the case, was lodgedshall be taken as the date on which the document was lodged for thepurposes of registration.
6. Each copy of any procedural document which the partiesare
required to produce by virtue of Article 43 (1) of the Rulesof Proce-
dure must bear a note, signed by the lawyer or agent of the partyconcerned, certifying that the copy isa true copy of the original ofthe document concerned.
7. Where a party challenges the Registrar's refusal to accept a docu-
ment, the Registrar shall submit the document concerned to the
President for a decision on whether it is to be accepted.
Article 7
Presentation oforiginatingapplications
1. Where the Registrar considers that an application initiating
proceedingsismanifes tly not in conformity with Article 44 (1) of theRules of Procedure, he shall suspend service of the application in orderthat the Court may give a decision on the admissibility of the action.
2. For the purposes of the production of the document required by
Article 44 (3) of the Rulesof Procedure certifying that the lawyeracting for a party or assisting the party's agent is entitled to practisebefore a court of a Member State, reference may be made to a docu-ment previously lodged at the Registry of the Court.
3. Documentsto be produced by virtue of Article 44 (5) (a) and (b)
of the Rulesof Procedure in the cas e of an application made by a legalperson must include the authority granted to the lawyer, signed by arepresentative of that legal person authorized for the purpose, as wellas evidence establishing the existence in law of the legal person andthe power of the authority'ss ignatory to act in the name of the legal
person.
Article 8
Translations
1. The Registrar shall, in accordance with Article 36 (1) of the Rules
of Procedure, arrange for everything said or written in the course of theproceedings to be translated, at the request of a Judge, an Advocate-General or a party, into the language of the case or, where necessary,into another language asprovided for in Article 35 (2) of the RulesofProcedure. Where, for the purposes of the efficient conduct of the1994Q0322 — EN — 28.04.2001 — 001.001 — 5
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proceedings, a translation into another language, as provided for in
Article 35 (1) of the Rules of Procedure, is necessary, the Registrarshall also arrange for such a translation to be made.
2. The Registrar shall prescribe the periods within which institutions
which are partiesto proceedingsare to produce the trans lationsprovided for by Article 43 (2) of the Rulesof Procedure.
Article 9
Service
1. Service shall be effected, in accordance with Article 100(1) of the
Rules of Procedure, either by the dispatch by registered post, with aform for acknowledgment of receipt, of a certified copy of the original
of the document to be served or by personal delivery of such copy to
the addressee against a receipt. If need be, the certified copy shall beprepared by the Registrar.
The copy of the document shall be accompanied by a letter specifying
the case number, the register number and a brief indication of the
nature of the document. The signed original of that letter shall be kept
on the case-file.
2. If the addressee concerned has an address for service in Luxem-
bourg, documents shall be served on the person authorised to acceptservice.
Where, contrary to Article 44(2) of the Rulesof Procedure, a party has
failed to state an address for service in Luxembourg and has not agreedto the dispatch to him of notifications by telefax or other technicalmeans of communication, service shall be effected by the posting inLuxembourg of a registered letter addressed to the lawyer or agent of
the party concerned.
3. Where, in accordance with the second subparagraph of
Article 44(2), a party has consented to the dispatch to him of notifica-tionsby telefax or other technical meansof communication, s erviceshall be effected, in accordance with Article 100(2) of the Rules ofProcedure, by the meansor one of the meanss o indicated.
However, judgments and orders of the Court of First Instance and
documentswhich cannot, for technical reas onsor on account of theirnature or length, be transmitted by those means shall be served inaccordance with paragraph 1 above. Where the addressee has not desig-nated an address for service in Luxembourg, he shall be informed of
such service by the transmission by telefax or other technical means
of communication of a copy of the letter accompanying the documentto be served and drawing his attention to the provisions of the secondsubparagraph of Article 100(2) of the Rules of Procedure.
4. The form for acknowledgment of receipt, the receipt, the proof of
posting of the registered letter in Luxembourg or a document estab-
lishing the dispatch by telefax or other technical means ofcommunication shall be kept in the case-file together with the copy ofthe letter addressed to the person upon whom service was to beeffected.
5. If, owing to the length of a document, only one copy isannexed
to a procedural document lodged by a party or if, for other reasons,copiesof a document or an object lodged at the Regis try cannot beforwarded to the parties, the Registrar shall inform the parties accord-ingly and indicate to them that the document or object in question isavailable to them at the Registry for inspection.1994Q0322 — EN — 28.04.2001 — 001.001 — 6
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Article 10
Settingandextensionoftimelimits
1. The Registrar shall prescribe the time limits provided for in the
Rulesof Procedure, in accordance with the authority accorded to himby the President.
2. Documents received at the Registry after the period prescribed for
their lodgment hasexpired may be accepted only with the authorizationof the President.
4. The Registrar may extend the time limits prescribed, in accor-dance with the authority accorded to him by the President. Whennecessary, he shall submit to the President proposals for the extensionof time limits.
Applications for extensions of time limits must be duly reasoned and
be submitted in good time before the expiry of the period prescribed.
A time limit may not be extended more than once save for exceptionalreasons.
Article 11
Procedures onapplicationsforinterim measures
1. In the proceduresreferred to in Articles104 to 110 of the Rules
of Procedure, applications, written observations, applications to inter-
vene and other procedural documentsmay be s ubmitted by meansof
►
M1telefaxtransmissionorothertechnicalmeansofcommunication ◄
followed by the sending of the original document.
2. The Registrar may send messages and serve documents by all
appropriate meanswhich urgency requires , and in particular by means
of facsimile transmission; in the event of facsimile transmission, the
Registrar shall nevertheless ensure that the facsimile transmission isfollowed by a dispatch in the manner prescribed by Article 100 of theRulesof Procedure.
Article 12
Hearingsandminutesofhearings
1. Before every public hearing the Registrar shall draw up a cause
list in the language of the case. The cause list shall contain the date,hour and place of the hearing, an indication of the cases which willbe called and the namesof the parties .
The cause list shall be displayed at the entrance to the courtroom.2. The Registrar shall draw up in the respective language of each
case the minutes of every hearing. Those minutes shall contain an indi-
cation of the case, the date, hour and place of the hearing, an indicationof whether the hearing wasin public or in camera, the namesof the
Judges, the Advocate-General and the Registrar present, the namesand capacities of the agents, lawyers or advisers of the parties present,
the surnames, forenames, status and permanent addresses of the
witnesses or experts examined, an indication of the evidence or docu-ments produced at the hearing and, in so far as is necessary, thestatements made at the hearing and the decisions pronounced at thehearing by the Court or the President.
3. Minutesof the examination of a witnes swhich reproduce the
witness's evidence shall be drawn up by the Registrar in the language
in which the witness gave his evidence.
Before signing the minutes and submitting them to the President for his
signature the Registrar shall forward the draft minutes to the witness, ifnecessary by registered post, and request the witness to check them,1994Q0322 — EN — 28.04.2001 — 001.001 — 7
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make any observations which he may wish to make upon them and
sign them.
Article 13
Witnessesandexperts
1. The Registrar shall take the measures necessary for giving effect
to ordersrequiring the taking of expert opinion or the examination ofwitnesses.
2. The Registrar shall obtain from witnesses evidence of their
expenses and loss of earnings and from experts a fee note accountingfor their expenses and services.
3. The Registrar shall cause sums due to witnesses and experts
under the Rulesof Procedure to be paid from the Court'streas ury. In
the event of a dispute concerning such sums, the Registrar shall refer
the matter to the President in order for a decision to be taken.
4. The Registrar shall arrange for the costs of examining experts or
witnesses advances by the Court in a case to be demanded from theparties ordered to pay the costs. If necessary, steps pursuant to Article15 (2) shall be taken.
Article 14
Originalsofjudgmentsandorders
1. Originalsof judgmentsand ordersof the Court s hall be kept in
chronological order in the archivesof the Regis try. A certified copyshall be placed on the case file.
At the parties' request, the Registrar shall supply them with a certified
copy of the original of a judgment or of an order.
The Registrar may supply uncertified copies of judgments and orders to
third parties who so request.
2. Judgmentsor ordersrectifying or interpreting a judgment or an
order, judgments given on applications to set aside judgments bydefault, judgmentsand ordersgiven in third-party proceedingsor onapplicationsfor revis ion and judgmentsor ordersgiven by the Court
of Justice in appeals shall be mentioned in the margin of the judgment
or order concerned. A certified copy shall be appended to the originalof the judgment or order.
Article 15
Recovery ofsums
1. Where sums paid out by way of legal aid or sums advanced to
witnesses or experts are recoverable, the Registrar shall, by registered
letter, demand payment to those sums from the party which is to bearthem in accordance with the Rulesof Procedure.
2. If the sums demanded are not paid within the period prescribed
by the Registrar, he may request the Court to make an enforceabledecision and, if necessary, require its enforcement.
Article 16
Registrycharges
1. Where a copy of a procedural document or an extract from the
case-file or from the register is supplied to a party at its request, theRegistrar shall impose a Registry charge of ECU 3,50 a page for acertified copy and ECU 2,50 a page for an uncertified copy.
2. Where the Registrar arranges for a procedural document or an
extract from the case-file to be translated at the request of a party, aRegistry charge of ECU 1,25 a line shall be imposed.
3. The chargesreferred in thisArticle s hall, asfrom 1 January 1994,
be increased by 10 % each time the weighted cost-of-living index1994Q0322 — EN — 28.04.2001 — 001.001 — 8
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published by the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is
increased by 10 %.
Article 17
Publications
1. The Registrar shall cause to be published in the Official Journal
of the European Communities the composition of the Chambers and the
criteria applied in the allocation of cases to them, the election of the
President of the Court of First Instance and of the Presidents of Cham-bers, the appointment of the Registrar and of any Deputy Registrar.
2. The Registrar shall cause to be published in the Official Journal
of the European Communities noticesof proceedingsbrought and of
decisions closing proceedings.
3. The Registar shall ensure that the case-law of the Court of First
Instance is made public and that the Reports of Cases before the Court
of First Instance are published in the languages referred to in Article 1
of Council Regulation No 1 and in accordance with any arrangementsadopted by the Court of First Instance.
4. Where a party so requests or the Court of its own motion so
decides, the names of parties or third parties or other information maybe omitted from the publicationsrelating to a cas e if there isa legiti-
mate interest in keeping the identity of a person or other information
confidential.
Article 18
Adviceforlawyersandagents
1. At the request of lawyers or agents or, if need be, of his own
accord, the Registrar shall send to lawyers or agents a copy ►
M1of
the practice directionsadopted by the Court and ◄of these Instruc-
tionsto the Regis trar.
2. The Registrar shall draw up notes of advice on the conduct of the
written and oral procedure and make them known to lawyersand
agents.
3. When requested by lawyers or agents, the Registrar shall provide
them with information on the practice followed pursuant to the Rulesof Procedure ►
M1, pursuant to practice directions adopted by the
Court◄and pursuant to these Instructions to the Registrar in order
to ensure that proceedings are conducted efficiently.
Article 19
DerogationsfromtheseInstructions
Where the special circumstances of a case and the proper administra-
tion of justice require, the Court or the President may derogate from
any of these Instructions to the Registrar.
Article 20
Entryintoforce oftheseInstructions
These Instructions to the Registrar, which are authentic in the
languagesreferred to in Article 36 (2) of the Rulesof Procedure, s hall
be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities .
They shall enter into force on the day following their publication.1994Q0322 — EN — 28.04.2001 — 001.001 — 9