SOME REMARKS ON THE LEGAL INSTITUTION OF THE ADVOCATE GENERAL

Abstract

According to the article 252 of the Treaty on the Functioning of European Union (TFEU), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) shall be assisted by Advocates-General. The institution of the Advocate General was first introduced into the Treaty of Rome (1957) under the influence of the French delegation during the preparation of the Treaty.

In general, this legal institution is unfamiliar to many legal systems. Before fixing regulations of status of advocates general in the mentioned EEC primary source, advocate generals had assisted only the French and German judicial systems. The French were staunchly opposed to allowing individual judges to present dissenting or concurring opinions, and instead proposed this be done by an Advocate General, a figure modelled on the French commissaire du gouvernement, who offers legal advice to the Conseil d'État (supreme administrative court) on the cases being tried