The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) was established in 1952.  It sits in Luxembourg.  The function fo the Court is to interpret European Union law to make sure it is applied in the same way in all EU countries; it settles legal disputes between national governments and EU institutions.  It can also, in certain circumstances, be used by individuals, companies or organisations to take action against an EU institution, if they feel it has somehow infringed their rights.

The CJEU is divided into 2 courts:

Court of Justice – deals with requests for preliminary rulings from national courts, certain actions for annulment and appeals.

• 1 judge from each EU country, plus 11 advocates general

General Court – rules on actions for annulment brought by individuals, companies and, in some cases, EU governments. In practice, this means that this court deals mainly with competition law, State aid, trade, agriculture, trade marks.

• 47 judges. In 2019 this will be increased to 56 (2 judges from each EU country).

Each judge and advocate general is appointed for a renewable 6-year term, jointly by national governments. In each Court, the judges select a President who serves a renewable term of 3 years.