Court of Justice of the European Union

The primary judicial institution representing the European Union. It was founded in 1958 as a means to centralise legal disputes between member states of varying European treaties forming the European Community. These original treaties later became formalised as the European Union in 1967. At present, the Court of Justice of the European Union is composed of two key bodies. The first of these is the Court of Justice, which is directly linked to the original joint court. It consisted of 11 representatives and a single judge from each of the EU member states. Each member of the Court of Justice serves a six-year term before potential renewal, which is decided by agreement of the EU member states. Its predominant function is to interpret and maintain EU treaties and legislation. The second body refers to the General Court, which was known as the Court of First Instance prior to 1988. It is also sometimes referred to as the lower court and presides over smaller cases. It was initially introduced due to the sheer volume of litigation consistently put forward to the Court of Justice. Now, appeals to the Court of Justice are tightly restricted to prevent excess. The Court of Justice will, most often, attempt to reconcile disagreements between member states. If this cannot be achieved, their verdict overrules that of national legislation. This has frequently led to the expansion of the European Union domain.