Practice directions

relating to direct actions and appeals

THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Pursuant to Article 125a of its Rules of Procedure,

Whereas:

(1) It is in the interest of the efficient conduct of proceedings in direct actions and appeals that practice directions should be issued to agents and lawyers representing parties before the Court, dealing with the submission of pleadings and the preparation and conduct of hearings.

(2) The present directions reflect, explain and complement provisions in the Rules of Procedure and are designed to enable agents and lawyers to take account of the constraints under which the Court operates, particularly as regards the electronic processing of procedural documentation and translation and interpretation requirements.

(3) The Rules of Procedure and the Instructions to the Registrar require the Registrar to receive procedural documents, to ensure that they comply with the provisions of the Rules of Procedure and to assist the Court and Chambers, in particular in the organisation of hearings. In carrying out his duties, the Registrar must satisfy himself that the agents and lawyers comply with these practice directions, requiring them to make good any irregularities of form in documents lodged which do not comply with those provisions or requesting the agent or lawyer concerned to comply therewith.

(4) The views of representatives of the agents of the Member States and the institutions acting in proceedings before the Court, and of the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Community (CCBE), have been heard on the drafting of these practice directions.

HEREBY ADOPTS THE FOLLOWING PRACTICE DIRECTIONS:

USE OF TECHNICAL MEANS OF COMMUNICATION

1. A copy of the signed original of a procedural document may be transmitted to the Registry in accordance with Article 37(6) of the Rules of Procedure either:

- by telefax (to fax number: (352) 43 37 66), or

- as an attachment to an electronic mail (e-mail address: ecj.registry@curia.eu.int).

2. Where transmission is by electronic mail, only a scanned copy of the signed original will be accepted. An ordinary electronic file or one bearing an electronic signature or a computer-generated facsimile signature will not be treated as complying with Article 37(6) of the Rules of Procedure.

Documents should be scanned at a resolution of 300 DPI and, wherever possible, in PDF format (images plus text), using Acrobat or Readiris 7 Pro software.

3. A document lodged by telefax or electronic mail will be treated as complying with the relevant time-limit only if the signed original itself reaches the Registry within 10 days following such lodgment, as specified in Article 37(6) of the Rules of Procedure. The signed original must be sent without delay, immediately after the despatch of the copy, without any corrections or amendments, even of a minor nature. In the event of any discrepancy between the signed original and the copy previously lodged, only the date of lodgment of the signed original will be taken into consideration.

4. Where, in accordance with Article 38(2) of the Rules of Procedure, a party agrees to be notified by telefax or other technical means of communication, the statement to that effect must specify the telefax number and/or the electronic mail address to which the Registry may send that party documents to be served. The recipient's computer must be equipped with suitable software (for example, Acrobat or Readiris 7 Pro) for reception and display of communications from the Registry, which will be transmitted in PDF format.

PRESENTATION OF PLEADINGS

5. Pleadings and other procedural documents lodged(1), by the parties must be submitted in a form which can be processed electronically by the Court, in particular by scanning and character recognition.

For that purpose, the following requirements must be complied with:

1. the paper must be white, unlined and A4 size, with text on one side of the page only;

2. pages of pleadings and annexes, if any, must be assembled in such a way as to be easily separable. They must not be bound together or permanently attached by means such as glue or staples;

3. the text must be in a commonly-used font (such as Times New Roman, Courier or Arial), in at least 12 pt in the body of the text and at least 10 pt in the footnotes, with one-and-a-half line spacing and upper, lower, left and right margins of at least 2,5 cm;

4. the pages of the pleading must be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner. That numbering must also cover all the pages of any annexes to the pleading, so as to make it possible to check that all the pages of the annexes have been duly scanned.

6. The following information must appear on the first page of the pleading:

1. the title of the pleading (application, appeal, defence, response, reply, rejoinder, application for leave to intervene, statement in intervention, observations on the statement in intervention, objection of inadmissibility, etc.).

Where a response seeks an order setting aside in whole or in part the decision of the Court of First Instance on a plea in law not raised in the appeal, the title of the pleading must indicate that the document is a response and cross-appeal;

2. the case number (C-.../...), if it has already been notified by the Registry;

3. the names of the applicant (appellant) and defendant (respondent) and, in appeals, the identification of the decision under appeal and the parties before the Court of First Instance;

4. the name of the party on whose behalf the pleading is lodged.

7. Each paragraph of the pleading must be numbered.

8. The signature of the agent or lawyer acting for the party concerned must appear at the end of the pleading.

FORM AND CONTENT OF THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF PLEADING

Application initiating proceedings

9. An application must contain the statements prescribed by Article 38(1) and (2) of the Rules of Procedure.

10. The following must appear at the beginning of each application:

1. the applicant's name and address;

2. the name and capacity of the applicant's agent or lawyer;

3. the identity of the party or parties against whom the action is brought;

4. the statements referred to in Article 38(2) of the Rules of Procedure (address for service in Luxembourg and/or agreement to service by telefax or any other technical means of communication).

11. In the case of an application for annulment, a copy of the contested measure must be annexed to the application and identified as such.

12. Each application should be accompanied by a summary of the pleas in law and main arguments relied on, intended to facilitate publication in the Official Journal of the notice prescribed by Article 16(6) of the Rules of Procedure, which will be prepared by the Registry. The summary in question must not be more than two pages long.

13. The precise wording of the forms of order sought by the applicant must be specified either at the beginning or the end of the application.

14. The introductory part of the application must be followed by a brief account of the facts giving rise to the dispute.

15. The structure of the legal argument must reflect the pleas in law relied upon. After the account of the facts giving rise to the dispute, a summary outline of those pleas in law should be given.

Defence

16. The defence must contain the statements prescribed by Article 40(1) of the Rules of Procedure.

17. In addition to the case-number and the applicant's name, the following must appear at the beginning of each defence:

1. the defendant's name and address;

2. the name and capacity of the defendant's agent or lawyer;

3. an address for service in Luxembourg and/or agreement to service by telefax or other technical means of communication (second subparagraph of Article 40(1) of the Rules of Procedure).

18. The precise wording of the forms of order sought by the defendant must be specified either at the beginning or at the end of the defence.

19. The structure of the legal argument must, so far as is possible, reflect that of the pleas in law put forward in the application.

20. If any fact alleged by the other party is contested it must be clearly indicated and the basis on which it is challenged must be stated explicitly.

Appeal

21. An appeal must contain the statements prescribed by Article 112(1) of the Rules of Procedure.

22. The following must appear at the beginning of each appeal:

1. the appellant's name and address;

2. the name and capacity of the appellant's agent or lawyer;

3. the identification of the decision of the Court of First Instance appealed against (type of decision, formation of the Court, date and number of the case) and the names of the parties before the Court of First Instance;

4. the date on which the decision of the Court of First Instance was notified to the appellant;

5. an address for service in Luxembourg and/or agreement to service by telefax or other technical means of communication.

23. A copy of the decision of the Court of First Instance appealed against must be annexed to the appeal.

24. The appeal should be accompanied by a summary of the grounds of appeal and main arguments relied on, intended to facilitate publication in the Official Journal of the notice prescribed by Article 16(6) of the Rules of Procedure, which will be prepared by the Registry. The summary in question must not be more than two pages long.

25. The precise wording of the forms of order sought by the appellant must be specified either at the beginning or at the end of the appeal (Article 113(1) of Rules of Procedure).

26. It is not generally necessary to set out the background to the dispute or its subject-matter; it will be sufficient to refer to the decision of the Court of First Instance.

27. The structure of the legal arguments must reflect the grounds, in particular errors of law, relied upon in support of the appeal. A summary outline of those grounds should be given at the beginning of the appeal.

Response

28. A response must contain the statements prescribed by Article 115(1) of the Rules of Procedure.

29. The following must appear at the beginning of each response:

1. the name and address of the party lodging it;

2. the name and capacity of the agent or lawyer acting for that party;

3. the date on which notice of the appeal was served on the party;

4. an address for service and/or agreement to service by telefax or any other technical means of communication.

30. The precise wording of the forms of order sought by the party lodging the response must be specified either at the beginning or at the end of the response.

31. If the response seeks an order setting aside, in whole or in part, the decision of the Court of First Instance on a plea in law not raised in the appeal, that fact must be indicated in the title of the pleading (Response and Cross-appeal).

32. The structure of the legal arguments must, so far as is possible, reflect the grounds of appeal put forward by the appellant and/or, as appropriate, the grounds put forward by way of cross-appeal.

ANNEXES TO PLEADINGS

33. Only documents mentioned in the actual text of a pleading and necessary in order to prove or illustrate its contents may be submitted as annexes.

34. Annexes will be accepted only if they are accompanied by a schedule of annexes (Article 37(4) of the Rules of Procedure). That schedule must indicate for each document annexed:

1. the number of the annex;

2. a short description of the document (e.g. "letter", followed by its date, author and addressee and its number of pages);

3. a reference to the page and paragraph in the pleading at which the document is mentioned and from which the need to produce it is apparent.

35. If, for the convenience of the Court, copies of judgments, legal writings or legislation are annexed to a pleading, they must be separate from the other annexes.

36. Each reference to a document lodged must state the relevant annex number as given in the schedule of annexes in which it appears and indicate the pleading to which it is annexed. In appeal proceedings, where the document has already been produced before the Court of First Instance, the identification used for that document before the Court of First Instance must also be given.

DRAFTING AND LENGTH OF PLEADINGS

37. With a view to avoiding delay in proceedings, when drafting pleadings the following points in particular must be taken into consideration:

- the case is examined on the basis of the pleadings; in order to facilitate that examination, documents must be structured and concise and must avoid repetition,

- pleadings must, as a general rule, be translated; in order to facilitate translation and to make it as accurate as possible sentences should be simple in structure and vocabulary should be simple and precise,

- the time needed for translation and for examination of the case-file is proportionate to the length of the pleadings lodged, so that the shorter the pleadings, the swifter the disposal of the case.

38. It is the Court's experience that, save in exceptional circumstances, effective pleadings need not exceed 10 or 15 pages and replies, rejoinders and responses can be limited to five to 10 pages.

APPLICATIONS FOR EXPEDITED PROCEDURE

39. A party applying by separate document under Article 62a of the Rules of Procedure for a case to be decided by the Court by expedited procedure must briefly state the reasons for the special urgency of the case. Save in exceptional circumstances, that application must not exceed five pages.

40. As the expedited procedure is largely oral, the pleading of the party requesting it must be confined essentially to a summary of the pleas relied upon. Such pleadings must not, save in exceptional circumstances, exceed 10 pages.

APPLICATIONS FOR LEAVE TO LODGE A REPLY IN APPEAL PROCEEDINGS

41. The President may, on application, allow a reply to be lodged if it is necessary in order to enable the appellant to defend its point of view or in order to provide a basis for the decision on the appeal.

Save in exceptional circumstances such an application must not exceed two to three pages and must be confined to summarising the precise reasons for which, in the appellant's opinion, a reply is necessary. The request must be comprehensible in itself without any need to refer to the appeal or the response.

APPLICATIONS FOR HEARING OF ORAL ARGUMENT

42. The Court may decide not to hear oral argument where none of the parties has applied to be heard (Articles 44a and 120 of the Rules of Procedure). In practice, it is rare for a hearing to be organised in the absence of such an application.

The application must specify why the party wishes to be heard. That reasoning must be based on a real assessment of the benefit of a hearing to the party in question and must indicate the documentary elements or arguments which that party considers it necessary to develop or disprove more fully at a hearing. It is not sufficient to provide a general statement of reasons referring to the importance of the case or of the questions to be decided.

PREPARATION AND CONDUCT OF HEARINGS

43. Before the hearing begins the agents or lawyers are called to a short meeting with the relevant formation of the Court, in order to plan the hearing. At that point the Judge-Rapporteur and the Advocate General may indicate the matters they wish to hear developed in the arguments.

44. Oral argument is limited to 30 minutes maximum before the full Court, the Grand Chamber or a chamber of five Judges (Fifth and Sixth Chambers) and to 15 minutes maximum before a chamber of three Judges (First, Second, Third and Fourth Chambers). Before any formation the presentation of an intervener's argument is limited to 15 minutes maximum.

Speaking time may exceptionally be extended beyond those limits on application made to the President of the formation concerned together with a detailed statement of reasons. The application must reach the Court as soon as possible and, in order to be taken into consideration, at the latest two weeks before the date of the hearing.

The notification of the hearing asks the agents and lawyers to inform the Registry of the likely duration of their oral arguments. The information supplied is used in the planning of the business of the Court and the Chambers, and it is not possible to exceed the speaking time requested.

45. Having read the written pleadings, the Judges and the Advocate General are already familiar with the case, its subject-matter and the pleas in law and arguments put forward by the parties. The purpose of oral argument is not to present a party's point of view afresh but to clarify any matters which the agent or lawyer regards as particularly important, especially those referred to in the application for a hearing (see paragraph 42 above). Repetition of what has already been stated in the written pleadings is to be avoided; if necessary, a reference to the pleadings during the course of the oral argument will suffice.

Oral submissions should begin by outlining the plan to be followed.

46. Very frequently the Judges and Advocate General will listen to oral argument via simultaneous interpretation. In order to facilitate that interpretation, agents and lawyers should speak at an unforced pace and use short sentences of simple structure.

It is inadvisable to read out a text prepared in advance. It is preferable to speak on the basis of properly structured notes. If the oral argument is, nevertheless, prepared in writing, account should be taken in drafting the text of the fact that it is to be delivered orally and ought therefore to come as close as possible to oral exposition. To facilitate interpretation, agents and lawyers are requested to send the text or written outline of their oral argument by fax in advance to the Interpretation Division (fax (352) 43 03 36 97).

Done at Luxembourg, 25 March 2003.

(1) The Court's postal address is:

Court of Justice of the European Communities L - 2925 Luxembourg