Judicial Leadership at the Court of Justice of the European Union

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is an indispensable actor in European Union (EU) politics. For some, it is considered the most powerful supranational court, for others it ranks among the most influential high courts worldwide. Despite the CJEU’s importance for the EU polity and significant scholarly attention paid to the CJEU, we know surprisingly little about the individuals holding leadership positions at CJEU. By employing the concepts of leadership in general, and political and judicial leadership in particular, this paper focuses on the Presidents of the CJEU with an emphasis placed on their powers, roles, importance for and influence on the Court’s internal functioning. In other words, this study aims to answer broader questions of who are the persons leading the CJEU and how they exercise their (judicial) leadership. Thus, the main aims of this study are to identify the sources of the CJEU Presidents’ powers and evaluate the leadership styles of the current (Koen Lenaerts) and former (Vassilios Skouris) CJEU Presidents. In doing so, this article answers three questions: (a) Is it possible to observe differences in the leadership styles of the two Presidents?; (b) if so, what are the characteristic features of their leaderships?; and finally (c) what powers and resources do they have at their disposal besides the prerogatives as prescribed by the formal framework regulating the functioning of the Court? The research questions will be answered by analyzing data gathered from semi-structured elite interviews with the judges, advocates generals, and other representatives of the CJEU.