On 10 January 2025, the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair at the College of Europe in Natolin organised a special lecture by Professor Eleanor SHARPSTON KC, a former long-serving UK Advocate General at the Court of Justice.
During her lecture entitled "A Multilingual, Multicultural Court of Justice for the European Union: United in Diversity", Professor SHARPSTON offered a unique opportunity to hear a first-hand account of how the Court of Justice of the European Union works. It operates as a multilingual and multicultural judicature, a very European melting pot where advocates general and judges decide on the shape of EU law.
The special lecture was followed by a Q&A session led by Professor Adam ŁAZOWSKI, Visiting Professor and Scientific Coordinator of the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair at the College of Europe in Natolin.
Check out the picture gallery from the event:
About the guest:
Professor Eleanor SHARPSTON KC is an English barrister who served as an Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) from 2006 to 2020. Eleanor SHARPSTON studied economics, languages and law at King's College, Cambridge (1973–77), followed by university teaching and research at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1977–80). She was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1980 and was a barrister in private practice from 1980 to 1987 and from 1990-2005; King's Counsel (1999); and Bencher of Middle Temple (2005). In the intervening years (1987–90) she worked as legal secretary (référendaire) in the Chambers of Advocate General, subsequently Judge, Sir Gordon Slynn later Lord Slynn of Hadley.
She was also a lecturer in EC and comparative law and Director of European Legal Studies at University College London (1990–92), and then a lecturer (1992–98), and subsequently affiliated lecturer (1998–2005), in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. She was a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Legal Studies of the University of Cambridge (1998–2005) and remains a fellow of King's College, Cambridge (since 1992).