The High Court has set a timetable for sending documents to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in a planning judicial review brought by Martin Stapleton against An Bord Pleanála and other respondents.
In a judgment delivered on 26 July 2022, Humphreys J directed the applicant to lodge an agreed electronic contents page and a PDF of the pleadings with the List Registrar as soon as practicable and by 9 September 2022. The documents are to be transmitted to the CJEU by the Principal Registrar.
The PDF is to include scanned copies of the signed, approved judgments and the order for reference. If the PDF exceeds 30MB, it must be divided into files, each no larger than 30MB. For the judgment being delivered on this occasion, the court specified a scan of its signed substantive text together with an electronic appendix preserving clickable links.
The directions follow an earlier judgment in the case, delivered on 22 June. The judge said he had refused declarations sought under provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011, and in respect of statutory invalidity under the Aarhus Convention. He had decided in principle to refer a question identified in that judgment to the CJEU. No amici curiae were proposed after the parties were given an opportunity to suggest them.
The court adjourned the hearing of the balance of the matter pending the CJEU’s decision. It directed that the case be listed for mention only on 3 October 2022 at 2pm. The July judgment gives procedural directions; it does not record the CJEU’s decision or determine the remaining matters in the judicial review.