Legal briefing: Statelessness and the right to respect for private and family life October 2024 by the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights, in particular the right to respect for private and family life according to Article 7 CFR. Where appropriate, this should be read in conjunction with the obligation to take the best interests of the child into primary consideration. National courts may submit questions to the CJEU on the interpretation or validity of EU law. Referring a question to the CJEU is done at the initiative of national courts, whether or not the parties to proceedings have requested that a question be referred. In most cases, the national court has discretion to decide whether to refer a question to the CJEU, but there are situations where it is obliged to do so under EU law. • Discretionary procedure under Article 267(2) TFEU: a national court may refer a question to the CJEU in cases where it considers that a decision by the CJEU on the question is necessary to give judgment. Where the necessity requirement is not established, the CJEU will declare the case inadmissible. • Mandatory procedure under Article 267(3) TFEU: a national court must refer questions to the CJEU where a question of EU law is raised in a case pending before it and there is no judicial remedy against such court’s decision. Where a court fails in its obligation to refer a question to the CJEU, there may be action against the State for damages1 or an infringement procedure. A national court must give a minimum reasoning for not referring the question. Reference to the CJEU is not mandatory if the point of EU is acte clair – that is obvious or has already been clarified by the Court. The CJEU will then interpret the content of the relevant provisions of EU law and indicate whether national legislation complies with the relevant EU Law (question of interpretation) or rule on the validity of EU law provisions (question of validity). The national court is bound by the interpretation of the CJEU which similarly binds other national courts where the same problem is raised. The CJEU does not determine the outcome of the case but sends its ruling back to the national court for that court to apply it to the case before it. More information is available on the Litigation Toolkit on Statelessness. 48 Private and family life in UN instruments There are various UN instruments that broadly protect the right to a private and family life.49 These general provisions could, in theory, offer protection in the context of statelessness. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)50 provides 48 See European Network on Statelessness and The AIRE Centre, Litigation Toolkit on Statelessness, Volume I: Impact litigation and judicial mechanisms to effect change, June 2024, pp. 27-29. 49 The importance of joining UN conventions from a human rights perspective lies in the fact that by ratifying human rights treaties, State Parties become bound by them under international law, whereby the implementation of treaty provisions implying the realisation of human rights standards become legally binding on State Parties. In doing so, States must comply with their human rights obligations and implement these standards, for instance, concerning the grant and loss of nationality. 50 UN, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Treaty Series, vol. 999, p. 171, 16 December 1966, entered into force 23 March 1976. 10