The Gazette 1995

GAZETTE

DECEMBER 1995

A Visit to the Irish Lawyers in Luxembourg and Brussels

has taken great trouble to provide us with ; a comprehensive programme of meetings j and briefings for the next day and a half, j We meet him at the front door of the j main court building, known as the Erasmus Building, at 9.00 a.m. precisely. | By 9.30 a.m. we have been briefed on the morning's case by the assistant to I Advocate General Jacobs and are seated in the Court of Justice. The case turns out to be one of major importance involving allegedly illegal state aid granted by France to its Post Office which is distorting the international express courier service. The arguments are succinct, clear and, even in translation, well presented. Major questions of legal principle are asked and cleverly argued. Listening is an interesting experience which contrasts with previous visits we have made to the Court when it was difficult to stay awake. j 11.00 o'clock and all the advocates go outside for coffee. A 9.30 a.m. start with a mid-morning coffee break. How different from the home life of our own dear courts. Our programme next brings us to the office of Nial Fennelly who was appointed Advocate General of the European Court of Justice in January of i this year. Advocates General play a key role in developing the jurisprudence of the Court. They have the status of judges and Nial is the first Irish lawyer ever to hold this post. He welcomes us most warmly in his office with its breathtaking view over several square kilometres of vividly yellow and orange coloured autumnal forest. We have coffee with him and his cabinet of young Irish lawyers who tell us how things are done 'out here'. Several more intensive briefings on the European Courts system follow before we escape to lunch in the judges' dining room. After lunch our visit to the Judges' chambers is completed when we are again very warmly received, first by John Murray, Judge of the European Court of There is a break in the proceedings at

Justice and then by Donal Barrington, Judge of the European Court of First Instance, and their staff of European law specialist Irish barristers, solicitors and academics. Each is generous with their very scarce time and provide us with real insights into their lives and work in j Luxembourg, while we reciprocate with nuggets of news from home. Dinner this evening is a most enjoyable affair in yet another excellent Luxembourg restaurant where we are

The President, Patrick A. Glynn and the Director General, Ken Murphy, recently visited the Irish lawyers in Luxembourg and Brussels. Here is the Director General's 'diary' of that visit.

Monday, 23 October

The President and I depart Dublin Airport by the 10.45 a.m. Virgin/Cityjet flight to Brussels on the first leg of our 'State visit' to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. We will be guests of the Irish Judges with all our expenses paid by the Court. It is thefirst time that this official invitation has been extended to representatives of the Law Society. Apparently the Bar have availed of it previously, perhaps more than once. This year, however, things are different. Can the change possibly have been influenced by the fact that the Irish member of the Court of Justice and the President of the Law Society both hail from Limerick? We meet MEPs Mark Killilea and Mary Banotti on theflight. They are already well familiar with the brand new terminal building which has transformed Brussels Airport from one of the shabbiest to one of the smartest airports in Europe. At 4.00 p.m. local time our connecting flight arrives in an unexpectedly warm and sunny Luxembourg. Our hotel is directly across the road from the ghastly building that houses the Court of Justice. The President remembers a restaurant which he thinks is named 'le chateau' to which he was brought by the younger members of the Luxembourg Bar on a previous visit. The taxi driver tells us no restaurant of that name exists. By coincidence we pass right by it as we explore Luxembourg's 'old town'. It tums out to be named 'Urn Plateau' and can be highly recommended.

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hosted by the three Irish judges and their wives.

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Wednesday, 25 October

Luxembourg

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There is no such thing as a free dinner and, accordingly, the relentless schedule I of education meetings resumes. We are swept at 30 minute intervals from one court official to another, each patiently explaining a separate aspect of the inevitably complex courts system which services, through a dozen working languages, the European Union law dispute resolution process for 15 member States and 340 million citizens. Today the judges are all involved in a case in which the German Government is challenging the legal basis for the European Union's GATT agreement in relation to bananas. This banana agree- ment, surprisingly to us, is a matter of intense political controversy in Germany where it has even been suggested that, if it does not like the Court's judgment, Germany will unprecedently refuse to comply with it. We hear that a group of German theologians have condemned the European Union's banana regime as "immoral"! ; ^ requires all of the advocates general as well as all of the judges to sit and hear it. This is thefirst time that this fullest of ; The unusual legal nature of the case

court divisions has sat since the accession of Austria, Sweden and Finland.

Tuesday, 24 October

! Continued on page 315

Anthony Collins, BL, is the senior referendaire to Judge John Murray. He

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