European Union

According to settled case-law, in order to determine whether a body making a reference was a court or tribunal for the purposes of Art 267 TFEU, which was a question governed by EU law alone, the court took account of a number of factors, such as whether the body was established by law, whether it was permanent, whether its jurisdiction was compulsory, whether its procedure was inter partes, whether it applied rules of law and whether it was independent. Further, a national court might refer a question to the court only if there was a case pending before it and if it was called upon to give judgment in proceedings intended to lead to a decision of a judicial nature. Accordingly, it was appropriate to determine whether a body might refer a case to the court on the basis of criteria relating both to the constitution of that body and to its function. In that connection, a national body might be