The European Court’s acte clair strategy in CILFIT Or: Acte Clair, of Course! But What does it Mean?

Abstract:

This article focuses on that part of the European Court’s CILFIT Judgment which deals with the exceptions to national last-resort courts’ obligation under Article 177(3) to submit preliminary questions to the European Court.

The thesis of this article is that CILFIT, in this respect, means something entirely different from what the Judgment decides on the face of it. The sole subject of the article is to prove that contention.