number 1 - Centre d'études et de recherches européennes Robert ...

The Court of Justice and its Role as a driving Force in European Integration 123
European Economic Community (EEC) Treaty and the European Atomic Energy
Community (EURATOM) Treaty. Hence the new Court's title, which has remained
unchanged ever since, of the Court of Justice of the European Communities 34 .
In the coming into force of the Rome treaties on 1 January 1958 the single
Court had not yet been constituted. It started operations, as laid down in Article 244
of the EEC Treaty, with the appointment of its seven judges and two advocates
general, on 6 October 1958. As well as the two Advocates General of the ECSC
Court, the terms of office of the judges, Delvaux, Hammes, Riese and Rueff were
renewed for a further six years. The office of President went to a young Dutch professor,
Andreas Donner. Henceforth Italy was to have two posts, one of which went
to a judge, Nino Rossi, and the other to a former ECSC lawyer and adviser to the
Italian delegation for the Rome negotiations, Nicola Catalano 35 .
In its first years of operation the Single Court of Justice dealt for the main part
with cases coming under the ECSC Treaty. In March 1961, the first case concerning
the EEC Treaty came before it, and the decision in favour of the Commission
and against Italy was rendered at the end of that same year, 1961 36 .
In broad outline the system for actions under the ECSC Treaty remained, albeit
subject to various modifications.
This was the case, in particular, of applications for annulment which were now
open, indistinctly, in respect of both Commission and Council measures, reflecting
the changes which had taken place in the decision-making power (Article 173 of
the EEC Treaty) 37 .
Henceforth, not only undertakings but any natural or legal person directly and
individually concerned by such measures could take proceedings. However, it was
34. According to the Convention on certain institutions common to the European Communities, signed
in Rome alongside with the treaties, the jurisdiction which the EEC Treaty and the Euratom Treaty
confer upon the Court of Justice shall be exercised, in accordance with those Treaties, by a single
Court of Justice. This single Court of Justice thus replaced the Court established under the ECSC
Treaty ; hence the need, under the same Convention, to render uniform the provisions concerning
the ECSC court. It had only one set of Rules of procedure (OJ No 18 of 21 March 1959).
35. Delvaux, Hammes, Roemer and Catalano were subject to the rule of three-yearly replacement in
October 1961, but all were confirmed in office. Catalano resigned a few days later and was
replaced by the Italian professor, Trabucchi. In October 1962 professor Riese retired, having lost
the chance of becoming president of the Single Court so that the chances of Halstein heading the
EEC Commission would not be spoiled. He was succeeded by a senior civil servant, Walter Strauss.
Jacques Rueff, whose exercise of judicial duties had been characterized by a number of vicissitudes
(in which respect, see the work by N. CONDORELLI BRAUN cited above in Note 13, p. 187),
was replaced, after resigning in May 1962, by Robert Lecourt who in 1967 acceeded to the post of
President of a Court on which he left his mark. On the subject of the Single Court's early years, the
article by President Donner in the work XXXV Anni cited above in Note 15, is pleasant reading.
36. Case 7/61, 19 December 1961, [1961] ECR 317. However, in the autumn of 1959, officials had
already pleaded the EEC Treaty in the context of a staff case.
37. Unlike the position under Article 38 of the ECSC Treaty, it was not possible to apply for the annulment
of acts of the Parliament. In the eighties, this gave rise to a considerable judicial battle involving
a number of decisions and a reversal of the case-law. The rule worked out by the judges was
officially enshrined in the Treaty of Maastricht.