Court of Justice to livestream delivery of judgment for the first time

For the first time in its history, the Court of Justice of the EU will livestream the delivery of one of its judgments on Wednesday 16 February. That day, it will render a full court judgment on the so-called rule of law conditionality mechanism under Regulation 2020/2092, after Poland and Hungary lodged actions for annulment challenging its validity (cases C-156/21 Hungary v Parliament and Council and C-157/21 Poland v Parliament and Council).

The debate on whether the Court should livestream its hearings and deliveries of judgments is not new, and combines concerns over transparency, multilingualism, or the correct administration of justice. It is likely, however, that the Court of Justice eventually allows for hearings to be followed through livestream, as pleadings have increasingly been taking place via videoconference or in a hybrid format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information on the debate concerning the streaming of hearings, read Luigi Malferrari and Alessandro Spina’s Long Read here, and Michal Kianička’s Long Read here.

The Court’s livestream of the judgment will be available here.