Essay (intentionally and firmly without footnotes) on the relationship between the preliminary reference to the Court of Cassation under Article 363-bis of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure and the functions of the supranational and constitutional courts

1. Introduction and dedication.

2. A preliminary ruling by the Court of Cassation does not exhaust the domestic remedies required before an application may be lodged with the ECHR. In preliminary reference proceedings, however, the Court of Cassation acts as a court of last instance for the purposes of any obligation to make a preliminary reference to the CJEU.

3. The Court of Cassation cannot act as a mere mailman for the trial court.

4. The Court of Cassation as the referring court, and the preliminary reference proceeding as an occasion for a further preliminary reference to the Constitutional Court or the Court of Justice (rejecting a sequential double preliminary reference).

5. The simultaneous double preliminary reference.