Le Conseil d'Etat français et le renvoi préjudiciel devant la cour de Justice de l'Union Européenne

As ordinary court of law of community law, then of law of the European Union, the French Council of State had to integrate community law followed by law of the European Union as reference standards of the control of conformity to a convention. In order to help in this integration, the Council of State has a tool: preliminary ruling proceedings. The use of preliminary ruling proceedings by the Council of State corresponds to the search for a delicate balance of shared competences between the Court of Justice and the Council of State. The Council of State tried at first to find its place and, in fact, to establish its role as a judge of common law. It also contributed to define the role of national judge in the preliminary ruling proceedings. Then, because it was able to contribute to define the role of the national judge in the exchange with the Court of Justice, the Council of State used preliminary ruling proceedings as a tool of understanding between the national judge and the Court of Justice in order to achieve the uniform application of Union law. This integration has been slow because at its core was a negative a priori, followed by a lack of understanding between the Court of Justice and the Council of State because the latter did not envisage preliminary ruling proceedings in the same way. If today the Council of State and the Court of Justice have entered into a dialogue in the same direction, divergences in conception, in perception of the role of the preliminary ruling proceedings during years of exchange between the two jurisdictions allowed the development of a rich and constructive dialogue, beneficial for the law of the European Union.