European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice is the judicial branch of the EU.
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Composition
Judges of the court are officially named by consensus. In practice, each member state nominates a judge and the others rubber-stamp the appointment.
Role
The court hears challenges to EU laws as well as member state implementations of those laws. The supremacy doctrine clarifies that EU law supersedes national laws. The direct effect doctrine enables citizens of member states to challenge national laws on the basis of being contradictory to EU law.
Under Article 234, it also interprets EU laws for courts of member states in proceedings called preliminary reference.