Chillin'Competition

Below in CAPS my markup on Alphonso’s post:

Nico and I have come up with a way of duplicating posts out of one piece of news; one of us writes something and then the other disagrees  [WE NOW TRIPLICATE MATE]

Last Tuesday Nico wrote a post titled “Revolving doors” in which he expresses the concern that “the cumulative effect of appointing previous Commission officials as judges, plus the very many référendaires who have spent some time in the EU administration may give rise to a pro-Commission bias at the Court“.

[I was actually in Luxembourg for a Court hearing -my first one in the front lawyer’s row- when Nico wrote it, but I’ll tell you about that some other time].

Without entering into the debate on whether there is or there isn’t too much of a pro-Commission bias at the Court (in my view, there is the same deference towards the public authority that we find in any European administrative system – in the US, on the contrary, that deference is less visible-), I don’t at all share Nico’s concern [CHECK CONSISTENCY: YOU DONT WANT TO ENTER INTO THE DEBATE, YET YOU EXPRESS DISAGREEMENT. WOULD SUGGEST DELETING THE INITIAL CAVEAT].

Assuming that there was such bias [YOU DEPART FROM MY INITIAL ASSUMPTION, WHICH POSTULATED THE ABSENCE OF BIAS, YET ANTICIPATED A RISK OF BIAS], I would argue that it has nothing to do with former Commission officials becoming members of the Court: [CORRECT. TO BE MORE ACCURATE, THIS POSSIBLE BIAS  HAS NOT ONLY TO DO WITH COMMISSION OFFICIALS BECOMING JUDGES AT THE COURT, BUT ALSO IS DUE TO SEVERAL OTHER FEATURES OF THE COURTS SYSTEM. A FREE PERSONAL SAMPLE: PRESUMPTION OF LEGALITY OF COMMISSION DECISION, DOCTRINE OF MARGINAL REVIEW OVER COMMISSION SUBSTANTIVE ANALYSIS, REPEATED APPEARANCE OF SPECIALIZED LEGAL SERVICE AGENTS ON BEHALF OF THE COMMISSION (AS COMPARED TO HIGH TURNOVER OF LAWYERS  REPRESENTING CLIENTS IN COURT), INEQUALITY OF APPLICANTS CHALLENGING A X-HUNDRED PAGES DECISION UNDER A 50 PAGES CAP ON SUBMISSIONS; SYSTEMATIC RELIANCE OF THE COMMISSION (READ THE LEGAL SERVICE) ON FORMS-BASED DEFENSE ARGUMENTS, ETC.]

Only two current Judges at the GC have previously worked at the Commission:  Marc van der Woude  (who was also a private practitioner, which should offset any bias; ask anyone in the business their opinion on him and you won’t hear a single negative one), and Guido Berardis (of whom I’ve also heard very positive things) [THE ISSUE IS NOT ABOUT WHAT WE PERSONALLY AND SUBJECTIVELY THINK ABOUT THEM; I TOO HOLD THOSE JUDGES IN GREAT ADMIRATION.  IT IS ABOUT COGNITIVE PROXIMITY TO CERTAIN IDEAS, OBJECTIVE QUIRKS AND BIASES, WHICH ARE HUMAN AND AFFECT ALL OF US, INCLUDING THOSE SEEN AS THE BEST PROFESSIONALS. THOSE THINGS HAVE BEEN ADUNDANTLY DOCUMENTED BY BEHAVIORAL ECONOMISTS]. 2 out of 27 (3 if the Committee gives the green light to Kreuschitz, which it undoubtedly should) does not appear to be an unreasonable proportion [UNLESS YOU PLEAD BEFORE A 3 JUDGES CHAMBER – THE STANDARD FORMAT FOR A GENERAL COURT CHAMBER – AND ALL THREE SIT IN IT]. Furthermore, all three of them were part of the Legal Service, which means that an important aspect of their work -aside from pleading- consisted in identifying flaws in the Commission’s work [NOT SURE THIS IS YOUR BEST SHOT. LET ME EXPLAIN. WHEN A DECISION IS APPEALED, THE LEGAL SERVICE HAS ALREADY CONCLUDED TO THE ABSENCE OF FLAWS [OTHERWISE THE DECISION WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ADOPTED]. OUR JUDGES WHO IN THE PAST WORKED FOR THE LEGAL SERVICE WILL THUS LIKELY BE TEMPTED TO ASSUME THAT THE DECISION IS LAWFUL, AND DEFER TO THEIR FORMER COLLEAGUES ANALYSIS. WHY REDO THE ANALYSIS OF THEIR ***** PEERS? ].

If you ask me (and part of my job is to beat the Commission in Court), the problem lies not in Judge’s previous professional experience, but rather in Judges being appointed for political reasons other than their knowledge of the law (see here). And people who know about EU law are generally -there are a few exceptions- either academics (most of whom also have defined pro or anti Commission biases), practitioners (we may have the opposite bias, plus we’re too competition law oriented), and Commission officials.

In sum, I would argue that we need Judges that know their stuff inside out, no matter their nationality or whether they are national judges, academics, ex-Commission officials or former practitioners. [AGREED. I WOULD KEEP THE SENTENCE AS SUCH, AND SIMPLY ADD  “IMPARTIAL” AT THE BEGINNING:  “IN SUM, I WOULD ARGUE THAT WE NEED IMPARTIAL JUDGES THAT KNOW THEIR STUFF INSIDE OUT”]

A FEW OTHER COMMENTS/REMARKS:

YOU DO NOT ADDRESS THE REFERENDAIRES;

IN MOST MODERN SYSTEMS OF LAW, THERE IS A REAL SEPARATION BETWEEN PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES, AND FOR GOOD REASON; 

THE QUESTION IS NOT SO MUCH ABOUT WHETHER THERE IS OR NOT A BIAS. WHEN IT COMES TO JUSTICE, THE MERE SUSPICION OF A POSSIBLE BIAS IS INTOLERABLE. JUSTICE IS THE LAST RESORT REMEDY AGAINST RISKS OF ARBITRARINESS. IT THUS  MUST COMPLY WITH THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE STANDARDS OF IMPARTIALITY. PUT SIMPLY, IMPARTIAL JUSTICE MUST NOT ONLY BE DONE, IT MUST ALSO BE SEEN TO BE DONE.