By: James G. Apple,
Editor-in-Chief, International Judicial Monitor
It is not commonly known that
there are some western European countries that are not a part of the European
Union. The EU currently has 27 member states, but that list does not include
Norway, Luxembourg, and Iceland. These three countries are members of the
European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and also the European Economic Area
(EEA). Because they are members of EEA they have access to the internal markets
of the EU. Some EU laws apply to them because of this membership, and thus they
should be subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. This
situation presented difficulties because it would give EU institutions powers
over non-members. To resolve this dilemma the EFTA court was established.
The original EEA Agreement of
1992 provided that EFTA states would establish a court of justice. This was
done for the then seven states of EFTA – Austria, Finland, Iceland,
Liechtenstein, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The EEA Agreement went into
force of January 1, 1994.
On that date the EFTA Court
began functioning. It had five judges, one each from Austria, Finland, Iceland,