The High Court has directed the Dublin 8 Residents Association to prepare and lodge documents for transmission to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), as part of a judicial review concerning An Bord Pleanála.
In a judgment delivered on 12 August 2022, Mr Justice Humphreys directed the applicants to lodge an electronic contents page and a PDF containing the pleadings. The documents’ contents are to be agreed with the other parties, and lodged with the List Registrar as soon as practicable, but no later than 9 September 2022, for transmission by the Principal Registrar.
The PDF must include scanned copies of signed, approved judgments, including a separate judgment for the reference when issued, and a scanned version of the reference order. The current judgment is to be included as a scan of its signed substantive part, alongside an electronic appendix that retains clickable links. Names of natural persons are to be redacted from orders and judgments, leaving initials. Any PDF larger than 30MB must be split into files no larger than 30MB each.
The judge also adjourned the hearing of the balance of the case pending the CJEU’s decision and listed the matter for mention at 2pm on 3 October 2022.
The directions follow an earlier judgment in the same proceedings, delivered on 11 March 2022. The court then amended the title of the proceedings and decided in principle to refer certain questions to the CJEU. The August judgment dealt with procedural steps before the formal reference order. The judge said no proposals had been made to add amici curiae—people or organisations invited to assist the court.
The August judgment does not set out the questions to be referred or decide the underlying judicial review. It says the order for reference would be dealt with in a separate judgment.