A better Dialogue Among National Courts for a more integrated Europe

What is the role of national Supreme Courts as part of the European Union (EU) judicial network in promoting a uniform interpretation and adequate enforcement of EU legislation? What degree of independence of judgment do Supreme Court judges have regarding decisions of preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and what are the consequences of civil and disciplinary liability for a possible refusal of a request for referral? Is it possible and appropriate to draw a model that encourages dialogue and discussion between the courts of the EU judicial network to ensure legal integration? The position taken by the Italian Administrative Supreme Court in the recent case Consiglio di Stato 2789/2024 offers an opportunity to answer these questions. The case lays the foundation for the discussion on a new organizational model towards a more efficient EU judicial system, in which national courts act not only as a transmission link, but also operate as interconnected neural centres of the EU judicial network. Against this background, the paper explores the role of the so-called pan-European dialogue among domestic courts and between them and CJEU for the EU’s legal integration and the development of a European ius commune that is uniformly interpreted and applied across the EU. To that end, it analyses the nature and functioning of the preliminary reference mechanism, with reference to the responsibility of national court judges for decisions on reference requests in the context of Italian legislation and EU law and in light of the judicial independence principle, and discusses the importance of an effective collaboration among the EU judicial network in tackling the challenges arising in the application of EU law by courts of Member States.