Naômé, Caroline --- "EU Enlargement and the European Court of Justice" [2008] ELECD 273; in Best, Edward; Christiansen, Thomas; Settembri, Pierpaolo (eds), "The Institutions of the Enlarged European Union" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: The Institutions of the Enlarged European Union

Editor(s): Best, Edward; Christiansen, Thomas; Settembri, Pierpaolo

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203458

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: EU Enlargement and the European Court of Justice

Author(s): Naômé, Caroline

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

6. EU enlargement and the European
Court of Justice
Caroline Naômé1

On 11 May 2004, ten new members of the European Court of Justice (here-
after, the `Court')2 took the oath before a court composed of 15 judges and
eight advocates-general. On the next day, nine3 new members of the Court
of First Instance (hereafter, the `CFI') took the oath before a court com-
posed of 25 judges and eight advocates-general. The bench had been
adapted during the night in order for the members of the Court to sit in two
rows. The reason for the organization of two different formal sittings may
have been that it would have taken too long to listen to introductory
speeches, presentations and oaths of 20 persons. Yet this distinction
between the members of the two Courts allowed the new members of
the Court to be immediately involved in the judicial activity and gave the
new members of the CFI the opportunity to be sworn in before the
members of the Court from their own member states. This is a good
example of the effects of enlargement on the Court: material adaptations,
immediate involvement of the new members and preservation of the
substance.
The Court has had to adapt its structure, increase the number of cham-
bers and reduce the amount of documents to be translated. The judicial
activity of the Court between 2004 and 2007 shows that the Court has over-
come the difficulties related to the enlargement ...