Conditions and Circumstances which Lead to Application to the Court of Justice of the European Union and Adoption of a Preliminary Ruling

Abstract This article deals with the issues concerning the communication between the national courts of the European Union Member States and the Court of Justice of the European Union via the preliminary ruling procedure. The doctrines of acte clair and acte éclairé are described briefly in the article. The authors explicitly investigate the national court’s right to apply to the Court of Justice of the European Union and the obligation to apply to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling. The recent tendencies in the jurisprudence of the national courts of the Republic of Lithuania while applying for preliminary rulings are revealed.