Judicial Dialogue Unpacked: Twenty Years of Preliminary References on Environmental Matters Initiated by the Swedish Judiciary

Judicial dialogue, as enabled through preliminary reference, is a fundamental component of the EU judicial system. It allows the national courts to ask the Court of Justice (ECJ) questions of interpretation and validity of EU acts, thereby helping secure the coherence of EU law, as well as it safeguards judicial protection, especially for individual applicants who otherwise enjoy limited access to the ECJ. The way this dialogue maps out in practice, however, is far from straightforward. Examining preliminary references on environmental matters issued by the Swedish courts over a twenty-year period shows various dialogues taking place—interchanged, gapped, interrupted and silenced—each demonstrating a different response from the national courts in implementing the ECJ’s rulings. This finding raises pressing questions concerning the impact of preliminary rulings in the Member States, the relationship between the national and the EU courts, and whether judicial dialogues are effective guarantors of judicial protection.