Judgment_paragraph 30 · R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Inc. and Others v Commission of the European Communities (C-131/03 P)

30As regards the need for effective judicial protection and the applicants' argument that if their actions were found to be inadmissible, they would have no legal means of challenging the contested acts because since the court seised of the case is in a non-Member State neither the Community courts nor the courts of the Member States can rule on the lawfulness of the Commission's conduct, the Court held:121 In this connection, the Court of Justice has stated that access to justice is one of the constitutive elements of a Community based on the rule of law and is guaranteed in the legal order based on the EC Treaty in that the Treaty has established a complete system of legal remedies and procedures designed to permit the Court of Justice to review the legality of measures adopted by the institutions (Case 294/83 Les Verts v Parliament [1986] ECR 1339, paragraph 23). The Court of Justice uses the constitutional traditions common to the Member States and Articles 6 and 13 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as a basis for the right to obtain an effective remedy before a competent court (Case 222/84 Johnston [1986] ECR 1651, paragraph 18).122 The right to an effective remedy for everyone whose rights and freedoms guaranteed by the law of the Union are violated has, moreover, been reaffirmed by Article 47 of the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union, proclaimed on 7 December 2000 in Nice (OJ 2000 C 364, p. 1). Although this document does not have legally binding force, it does show the importance of the rights it sets out in the Community legal order.123 It must be stated that individuals are not denied access to justice because conduct lacking the features of a decision cannot be challenged by way of an action for annulment, since an action for non-contractual liability under Article 235 EC and the second paragraph of Article 288 EC is available if the conduct is of such a nature as to entail liability for the Community.124 Although it may seem desirable that individuals should have, in addition to the possibility of an action for damages, a remedy under which actions of the Community institutions liable to prejudice their interests but which do not amount to decisions may be prevented or brought to an end, it is clear that a remedy of that nature, which would necessarily involve the Community judicature issuing directions to the institutions, is not provided for by the Treaty. It is not for the Community judicature to usurp the function of the founding authority of the Community in order to change the system of legal remedies and procedures established by the Treaty (Joined Cases T-172/98 and T-175/98 to T-177/98 Salamander and Others v Parliament and Council [2000] ECR II-2487, paragraph 75).’