ABSTRACT – This paper examines the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Joined Cases C-554/21, C-622/21 and C-727/21, Hann-Invest, where the Croatian mechanism for the unification of second-instance case law was found to restrict the independence of the referring court. The Grand Chamber opened a new frontier in the interpretation of Article 19 (1) TEU, by including in its scope constraints that are purely internal to the national judiciary. In order to fully grasp the significance of the ruling, the paper highlights its differences with the Advocate General’s Opinion, both on the admissibility of the preliminary question and the merits. In the concluding remarks, it is submitted that the judgment brought the jurisdiction of the Court a step closer to a full-fledged constitutional review of the EU legal order.
