Hearing next week on UPLS

According to the Newsletter -- Court of Justice of the European Union, next Tuesday, 18 May at 9:00am the Court of Justice is holding its Hearing in Opinion 1/09 on the compatibility with European Union law of the Unified European Patent litigation system (on which see, eg here and here):

"The Council has requested an opinion from the Court of Justice regarding the compatibility of a proposed agreement creating a European and Community Patents Court with the EC Treaty. The draft international agreement would be concluded between Member States, the European Union and the non-EU Member States of the European Patent Office and will have jurisdiction in respect of European and Community patents.

This special "Opinion" procedure, provided for by Article 300(6) of the EC Treaty (not to be confused with an Advocate General's Opinion), exists to allow the EU's institutions to seek advice from the Court of Justice about the compatibility of an international agreement with EU law before signing it (to avoid the EU entering into a treaty which is subsequently declared illegal by the Court). One of the specificities of this procedure is that it will be heard by the entire court (all 27 Judges and 8 Advocates General). At the hearing, the Court will hear the submissions of various EU institutions and Member States".

Thank you, Chris Stothers (Arnold & Porter), for spotting this.