In the Court We Trust
Cooperation, Coordination and Collaboration between the ECJ and Supreme Administrative Courts
Cambridge Studies in European Law and Policy Series

The preliminary reference procedure has long been envisaged as a judicial dialogue between the European Court of Justice and national courts. However, in reality the relationship appears to be closer to one of growing separation rather than to a happy marriage between equal partners. This book tries to find out: what is behind this? A study of the existing literature, combined with a case law analysis and interviews with judges, has shown that there are a number of important stumble blocks hindering the communication between these courts, such as language barriers, time constraints, and a failing digital infrastructure. However, on a deeper level there also appears to be a lack of mutual trust that prevents Supreme Administrative Courts from using the possibilities the procedure provides, such as the opportunity to offer provisional answers to the Court of Justice and the use of requests for clarification by the latter.

1. Why don't we talk?; 2. Dialogue as a concept; 3. Case law analysis; 4. Results from the interviews; 5. Trust and dialogue; 6. Conclusion and future scenarios.

Rob van Gestel is Professor of Law at Law School, Universiteit van Tilburg, The Netherlands. He was visiting Professor at the Academy of Legal Theory of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Brussels, Professor of methodology of legal research at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and Braudel Fellow of the European University Institute in Florence, Chairman of the Dutch Association of Legislation and member of the International Association of Legislation. He has recently published: Rob van Gestel, Hans Micklitz and Ed Rubin (eds.), Rethinking Legal Scholarship: A Transatlantic Dialogue (Cambridge, 2017), and articles in the European Law Journal, Common Market Law Review, European Public Law, Cambridge International Law Journal, Legal Studies.
Jurgen de Poorter is Professor of Administrative Law at Universiteit van Tilburg, The Netherlands and deputy Judge in the District Court of The Hague. From 2005 until 2018 he was a special advisor to the Dutch Council of State, in particular to the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State. He has recently published on methods of judicial lawmaking, judicial review of evidence based legislation and judicial dialogues in the European Union.