The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled, in a decision binding on Romania, that the national judge may disregard a decision of the Constitutional Court (binding under art. 147 para. (4) of the Romanian Constitution), without the judge being subject to any disciplinary consequences, if the judge considers that a decision of the Constitutional Court is contrary to European Union law.
The same reasoning is to apply in respect of judgments delivered by the High Court of Cassation and Justice if they consider them to be contrary to European Union law.
The case in question is Case C-107/23 PPU [Lin], reference for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from Brașov Court of Appeal (Romania).
According to the Court of Justice, the principle of the supremacy of Union law must be interpreted as precluding a national rule or practice according to which the national courts of a Member State are bound by the decisions of the constitutional court as well as by those of the supreme court of that Member State and cannot, for that reason and at the risk of incurring the disciplinary liability of the judges concerned, disapply of their own motion the case-law resulting from those decisions, even if they consider, in the light of a judgment of the Court, that that case-law is contrary to provisions of European Union law which have direct effect.
