The case-law in 2001 demonstrates the abundance and range of the matters dealt with by the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance and the breadth of subject covered in the various fields of Community law.

As the President, Mr Gil Carlos Rodríguez Iglesias, points out in the foreword to the annual report, the mere number of the cases decided over the past year cannot provide an accurate measure of the level of judicial activity, since cases brought before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance, and their degree of complexity, differ so much; each case must be dealt with in an appropriate manner, at greater or lesser length and in varying depth. None the less, that figure is deserving of the closest attention, inasmuch as a comparison with the number of cases brought makes it possible to measure the impact which the year gone by has had on the number of pending cases and, therefore, on the duration of proceedings.

The statistics set out at the end of the report show that the level of activity of both courts was consistently high in 2001, substantially comparable to that of the previous year. The number of cases brought to a close was 434 at the Court of Justice and 340 at the Court of First Instance, while new cases brought numbered 504 and 345 respectively. The average duration of proceedings was broadly constant for the two years.

With regard to its administrative functioning, the Court of Justice has continued to be concerned with translation issues, in particular in relation to enlargement and the difficulties which will arise from the increase in language combinations and the foreseeable growth in the number of cases. In this context, the Court has embarked upon a vast computer project designed to put in place a multilingual tool, adapted to judicial work, integrating all the stages in the life of documents, from inception to publication.

Finally, as the President notes at the end of his foreword to the 2001 Annual Report, the Court of Justice has begun, in conjunction with the Court of First Instance, to address the future entry into force of the Treaty of Nice (the sharing between them of jurisdiction over direct actions and the setting up of a judicial panel for cases brought by European Union officials).