THE DECISION-MAKING BODY OF THE COURT THAT DECIDES ON THE MATTER MUST ITSELF DECIDE ON ITS OUTCOME

#123The decision-making body of the court that decides on the matter must itself decide on its outcome

The Court of Justice decided by the judgment in the combined cases C-554/21, C-622/21 and C-727/21 dated 11.07.2024 that the decision-making composition of the court that decides on the case must itself decide on its outcome.

In Croatia, in courts of second instance, all decisions taken by the decision-making body are sent to the registered judge of the decision-making court before being formally issued and delivered to the parties to the proceedings.

The registered judge is selected by the president of the court in question. Among his powers, above all, is the interruption of the pronouncement of the judgment by the decision-making body and the issuing of an instruction for the next decision. However, the name of the registered judge is not known to the participants of the proceedings, nor is it whether or not the registered judge intervened in the proceedings when the judgment was announced by the decision-making panel.

If the registrar judge issues an instruction and the decision-making panel does not comply with him, a panel meeting may be convened, which may subsequently issue a binding "legal opinion" for all decision-making panels within that panel. In such a case, the concerned decision-making body has the obligation to change its originally adopted court decision.

According to the Croatian Higher Commercial Court, the aforementioned procedural mechanism of the Croatian Courts of Second Instance has been justified by the need to ensure the coherence of jurisprudence. However, the Croatian Higher Commercial Court turned to the Court of Justice due to doubts about this process with Union law.

The Court of Justice states in its decision that the internal procedural mechanism of the court, whose primary goal is to prevent contradictions in jurisprudence or to correct them in connection with the principle of the rule of law and ensuring legal certainty, must be in accordance with the requirement of independence of the judiciary. The decision-making body of the court, which decides on the merits of the case, must itself adopt a decision that ends the proceedings. The Court of Justice also adds that the composition of the decision-making panels of the court should be strictly subject to the rules of transparency, which will be known to the participants in the proceedings. Any unauthorized intervention by persons who do not belong to the decision-making composition of the court should be excluded.