BOSPHORUS HAVA YOLLARI TURİZM VE TİCARET ANONİM ŞİRKETİ v. IRELAND JUDGMENT 37 Co. approach allowed the Convention to be applied in a manner which took account of the needs and realities of international relations and the unique features of the Community system. 125. In the opinion of the Commission, the respondent State had no discretion under Community law. When a case involved an Article 177 (now Article 234) reference, this Court should distinguish between the respective roles of the national courts and the ECJ, so that if the impugned act was a direct result of the ECJ's ruling this Court should refrain from scrutinising it. In the Commission's view, Ireland was obliged (especially given the opinion of the Sanctions Committee) on account of its duty of loyal cooperation (Article 5, now Article 10, of the EC Treaty) to appeal the judgment of Mr Justice Murphy of the High Court to the Supreme Court in order to ensure effective implementation of Regulation (EEC) no. 990/93. The Supreme Court, as the last-instance court, was obliged under Article 177 (now Article 234) of the EC Treaty to make a reference to the ECJ since there was no doubt that the government's appeal before it raised a serious and central question of interpretation of Community law. The Supreme Court asked the ECJ whether Article 8 of Regulation (EEC) no. 990/93 applied to an aircraft such as that leased by the applicant company and the ECJ ruled that it did, having reviewed the fundamental rights aspects of the case so that, although the ECJ could not examine the particular facts of cases, the impoundment in question was conclusively assessed and decided by the ECJ. The ruling of the ECJ was binding on the Supreme Court. In those circumstances, the Supreme Court had no discretion to exercise and, consequently, its implementation of the ECJ ruling could not be reviewed by this Court. 126. Moreover, the Commission considered that “equivalent protection” was to be found in Community law and structures. It outlined the developing recognition of the Convention provisions as a significant source of general principles of Community law, which governed the activities of the Community institutions and States and was implemented by the Community's judicial machinery, and noted the relevant Treaty amendments reinforcing these case-law developments. 127. Finally, the Commission considered that the ruling in Kondova (cited above) clearly supported its position that discretionary acts of the State remained fully subject to the Convention. The applicant company's reliance on Article 234 (now Article 307) of the EC Treaty was erroneous and the conclusions drawn therefrom inappropriate: in expressing international law principles such as pacta sunt servanda, the said Article simply confirmed the starting-point of the relevant Convention analysis, namely, that a State cannot avoid its Convention responsibilities by ceding power to an international organisation.