What is the difference between the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance?
The ECJ was created by the Treaty of Rome and interprets and applies EU law as found in the EU treaties and legislation. The Court of First Instance (CFI) was created in 1989 to relieve the case load of the ECJ and mainly hears cases dealing with competition law, dumping, subsidies and staff grievances. The decisions of the Court of First Instance are appealable to the ECJ. From 1989, Court of Justice cases have the prefix ‘C’ and Court of First Instance have the prefix ‘T’ i.e. C-386/00, T-201/95. The case number will change if a case is referred from the CFI to the ECJ.
