Current backlog of cases “unacceptable”
Peers have called for more judges and a further three Advocates-General to be appointed to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to clear an “unacceptable” backlog of cases.
There are currently 27 judges and eight Advocates-General at the ECJ. A report by the Lords Justice, Institutions and Consumer Protection EU sub-committee, published this week, noted that intellectual property cases take an average of 20 months to be decided by the General Court, while other actions take an average 33 months.
The number of new cases before the court almost doubled between 2000 and 2010, although recent figures show a reduction in the number of pending cases.
Lord Bowness, Committee chair, said: “The number of pending cases before the court continues to rise year on year.
“It is crucial that the right balance is struck between the length of time it takes for the court to dispose of a case and the quality of its judgments, in order to preserve its credibility.”
The sub-committee recommended an increase in the number of advocates general in 2011, and the ECJ has since requested an increase. However, before the UK government can vote in the European Council to support this, it needs to have resolutions to that effect from both Houses of Parliament. In this week's report, Workload of the Court of Justice of the European Union: Follow-up Report, the sub-committee urges the government to speed this process up.
