Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Community law - Principles - Fundamental rights - Observance ensured by the Court - Compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights of national legislation not falling within the field of application of Community law - Review by the Court - Precluded

(EC Treaty, Arts 164 and 177)

Summary

Where national legislation is concerned with a situation which does not fall within the field of application of Community law, the Court cannot, in a reference for a preliminary ruling, give the interpretative guidance necessary for the national court to determine whether that national legislation is in conformity with the fundamental rights whose observance the Court ensures, such as those deriving in particular from the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Accordingly, provisions of national law not designed to secure compliance with rules of Community law are concerned with a situation which does not fall within the field of application of Community law even though a term of imprisonment imposed by virtue of those provisions may impede the person concerned from exercising his right to freedom of movement, since a purely hypothetical prospect of exercising that right does not establish a sufficient connection with Community law to justify the application of Community provisions.