Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Appeals ° Pleas in law ° Mistaken assessment of the facts ° Inadmissibility ° Dismissal

(EC Treaty, Art. 168a; Statute of the Court of Justice of the EC, Art. 51, first para.)

2. Appeals ° Pleas in law ° Mere repetition of the pleas and arguments presented to the Court of First Instance ° Inadmissibility ° Dismissal

(EC Treaty, Art. 168a; Statute of the Court of Justice of the EC, Art. 51; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 112(1)(c))

Summary

1. Under Article 168a of the Treaty, an appeal is confined to points of law and this limitation is further embodied in the first paragraph of Article 51 of the Statute of the Court of Justice. Thus, an appeal may rely only on grounds relating to infringements of rules of law, to the exclusion of any appraisal of facts, and is therefore admissible only in so far as the decision of the Court of First Instance is claimed to be incompatible with rules of law the observance of which it had to ensure.

2. It follows from Article 168a of the Treaty, Article 51 of the Statute of the Court of Justice and Article 112(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, read in combination, that an appeal must indicate precisely which elements of the contested judgment are challenged, and also the legal arguments which specifically support the appeal.

This requirement is not satisfied by pleas in law which are confined to repeating or reproducing word for word the arguments previously submitted to the Court of First Instance, without containing any legal argument in support of the form of order sought in the appeal. In reality, such pleas merely seek to obtain a re-examination of the application and the reply submitted to the Court of First Instance, which is outside the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice.