Editing European Court of Justice (section)

==Composition==
{{Further|List of members of the European Court of Justice}}

===Judges===
The Court of Justice consists of {{EUnum}} Judges who are assisted by 11 [[Advocate-General (European Union)|advocates-general]]. The judges and advocates-general are appointed by common accord of the governments of the member states<ref name="T223">Article 253 (ex Article 223) of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union.</ref> and hold office for a renewable term of six years. The treaties require that they are chosen from legal experts whose independence is "beyond doubt" and who possess the qualifications required for appointment to the highest judicial offices in their respective countries or who are of recognised competence.<ref name="T223"/> In practice, each member state nominates a judge whose nomination is then ratified by all other member states.<ref>{{cite book |author=Simon Hix |title=The Political System of the European Union |url=https://archive.org/details/politicalsystemo00hixs |url-access=registration |publisher=Palgrave |year=2005 |edition=2nd |page=[https://archive.org/details/politicalsystemo00hixs/page/117 117]}}</ref>

===President===
The president of the Court of Justice is elected from and by the judges for a renewable term of three years. The president presides over hearings and deliberations, directing both judicial business and administration (for example, the time table of the Court and Grand Chamber). He also assigns cases to the chambers for examination and appoints judge as rapporteurs called [[Judge-Rapporteur]] (reporting judges).<ref>{{cite web |last=Muñoz |first=Susana |title=Organisation of the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance of the European Communities |publisher=[[Centre virtuel de la connaissance sur l'Europe|CVCE]] |url=http://www.cvce.eu/obj/organisation_of_the_community_jurisdictions-en-8032474d-2ac4-4764-b299-5fc0ad597538.html |access-date=19 April 2013}}</ref> The Council may also appoint assistant rapporteurs to assist the president in applications for interim measures and to assist rapporteurs in the performance of their duties.<ref>{{cite web|title=Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice, Article 13|publisher=[[European Union]]|date=28 June 2009 |url=http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2008-09/statut_2008-09-25_17-29-58_783.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2008-09/statut_2008-09-25_17-29-58_783.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! {{Abbr|No.|Number}} !! President !! State !! Term
|-
| 1 || [[Massimo Pilotti]] || {{ITA}} || 1952–1958 
|-
| 2 || [[Andreas Matthias Donner]] || {{NLD}} || 1958–1964
|-
| 3 || [[Charles Léon Hammes]] || {{LUX}} || 1964–1967
|-
| 4 || [[Robert Lecourt]] || {{FRA}} || 1967–1976
|-
| 5 || [[Hans Kutscher]] || {{FRG}} || 1976–1980 
|-
| 6 || [[Josse Mertens de Wilmars]] || {{BEL}} || 1980–1984
|-
| 7 || [[John Mackenzie-Stuart]] || {{GBR}} || 1984–1988
|-
| 8 || [[Ole Due]] || {{DEN}} || 1988–1994
|-
| 9 || [[Gil Carlos Rodríguez Iglesias]] || {{ESP}} || 1994–2003
|-
| 10 || [[Vassilios Skouris]] || {{GRE}} || 2003–2015
|-
| 11 || [[Koen Lenaerts]] || {{BEL}} || 2015–present
|}

===Vice-President===
The post of vice-president was created by amendments to the Statute of the Court of Justice in 2012. The duty of the vice-president is to assist the president in the performance of his duties and to take the president's place when the latter is prevented from attending or when the office of president is vacant. In 2012, judge [[Koen Lenaerts]] from [[Belgium]] became the first judge to carry out the duties of the vice-president of the Court of Justice. Like the president of the Court of Justice, the vice-president is elected by the members of the Court for a term of three years.<ref>Under Article 9a of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union: ''The Judges shall elect the President and the Vice-President of the Court of Justice from among their number for a term of three years.''</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! {{Abbr|No.|Number}} !! Vice-President !! State !! Term
|-
| 1 || [[Koen Lenaerts]] || {{BEL}} ||2012–2015
|-
| 2 || [[Antonio Tizzano]] || {{ITA}} || 2015–2018
|-
| 3 || [[Rosario Silva de Lapuerta]] || {{ESP}} || 2018–2021
|-
| 4 || [[Lars Bay Larsen]] || {{DEN}} || 2021–2024
|-
| 5 || [[Thomas von Danwitz]] || {{GER}} || 2024–present
|}

===Advocates general===
{{Main|Advocate general (European Union)}}
The judges are assisted by eleven<ref name="Number of advocates general">{{citation | title = Court of Justice: Presentation | url =https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/Jo2_7024/en/#composition| quote = The Court of Justice is composed of 28 Judges and 11 Advocates General.}}</ref> [[Advocate general (European Union)|Advocates general]], whose number may be increased by the Council if the Court so requests. The Advocates General are responsible for presenting a legal opinion on the cases assigned to them. They can question the parties involved and then give their opinion on a legal solution to the case before the judges deliberate and deliver their judgment. The intention behind having advocates general attached is to provide independent and impartial opinions concerning the Court's cases. Unlike the Court's judgments, the written opinions of the advocates general are the works of a single author and are consequently generally more readable and deal with the legal issues more comprehensively than the Court, which is limited to the particular matters at hand.

The opinions of the advocates general are advisory and do not bind the Court, but they are nonetheless very influential and are followed in the majority of cases.<ref>Craig and de Búrca, page 70.</ref> In a 2016 study, Arrebola and Mauricio measured the influence of the advocate general on the judgments of the Court, showing that the Court is approximately 67% more likely to deliver a particular outcome if that was the opinion of the advocate general.<ref>Arrebola, Carlos and Mauricio, Ana Julia and Jiménez Portilla, Héctor, An Econometric Analysis of the Influence of the Advocate General on the Court of Justice of the European Union (January 12, 2016). Cambridge Journal of Comparative and International Law, Vol. 5, No. 1, Forthcoming; University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 3/2016. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2714259</ref> As of 2003, advocates general are only required to give an opinion if the Court considers the case raises a new point of law.<ref name="Europa info"/><ref name="Court ECJ">{{cite web |title=The Court of Justice of the European Communities |publisher=[[Europa (web portal)|Court of Justice]] |url=http://www.curia.europa.eu/en/instit/presentationfr/cje.htm |access-date=27 August 2007}}</ref>

According to Article 255 TFEU the judges and advocates-general are appointed by common accord of the governments of the member states after consultation of a panel responsible for assessing candidates’ suitability.<ref name ="Appointment of advocates general">{{citation | title = THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION | url =http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ftu/pdf/en/FTU_1.3.9.pdf | quote = ... The judges and advocates-general are appointed by common accord of the governments of the Member States after consultation of a panel responsible for assessing candidates’ suitability (Article 255 TFEU).}}</ref>

===The registrar===
The [[Registrar (law)|registrar]] is the Court's chief administrator. They manage departments under the authority of the Court's president.<ref name="Court ECJ"/> The Court may also appoint one or more Assistant Registrars. They help the Court, the Chambers, the president and the judges in all their official functions. They are responsible for the Registry as well as for the receipt, transmission and custody of documents and pleadings that have been entered in a register initialled by the president. They are Guardian of the Seals and responsible for the Court's archives and publications.

The registrar is responsible for the administration of the Court, its financial management and its accounts. The operation of the Court is in the hands of officials and other servants who are responsible to the registrar under the authority of the president. The Court administers its own infrastructure; this includes the Translation Directorate, which, {{as of|2012|lc=on}} employed 44.7% of the staff of the institution.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/Jo2_10742/direction-generale-de-la-traduction| title=Departments of the Institution: Translation | access-date=5 January 2014 |publisher=The European Union, ECJ}}</ref>

===Chambers===
The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of fifteen judges (including the president and vice-president), or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sittings are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges.<ref>As can be seen from the decline in cases pending before the full court: {{citation |url=http://curia.europa.eu/en/instit/presentationfr/rapport/stat/07_cour_stat.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://curia.europa.eu/en/instit/presentationfr/rapport/stat/07_cour_stat.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Annual Report, 2007|publisher=The Court of Justice of the European Communities |page=94}}</ref> Each chamber elects its own president who is elected for a term of three years in the case of the five-judge chambers or one year in the case of three-judge chambers.

The Court is required to sit in full court in exceptional cases provided for in the treaties. The court may also decide to sit in full, if the issues raised are considered to be of exceptional importance.<ref name="Europa info"/> Sitting as a Grand Chamber is more common and can happen when a member state or a Union institution, that is a party to certain proceedings, so requests, or in particularly complex or important cases.

The court acts as a collegial body: decisions are those of the court rather than of individual judges; no minority opinions are given and indeed the existence of a majority decision rather than unanimity is never suggested.<ref>Craig and de Búrca, page 95.</ref>
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Vassilios Skouris ECJ.jpg|thumb |left|175px|[[Vassilios Skouris]], the current President of the Court]] -->