Jeremy Lever Lecture 2015

Judge Koen Lenaerts gave the annual (and fourth) lecture in honour of Sir Jeremy Lever on Friday 30 January, in the Gulbenkian Lecture Theatre. Judge Lenaerts is Vice President of the Court of Justice of the European Union and Professor of Law at the University of Leuven. The Chair was taken by Lord Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court.

Judge Lenaerts took as his title - 'The Principle of Mutual Recognition in the EU's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice'. Lecturing with flair and enthusiasm, he explained how the principle of mutual recognition permits EU Member State legal orders to remain different, while creating unity through the - conditional - obligation to respect the outcomes reached elsewhere. This model, he explained, has been pioneered in the context of free movement law, to achieve freedom in product and service markets, but now allows for courts to treat criminal justice systems across the Union as different - unharmonised - and yet deserving of mutual respect. The EU, he explained, is founded on mutual trust among its Member States, and he provided concrete examples from the Court's case law articulating this principle. It was, without a doubt, a splendid event.

L-R: Professor John Vickers, Professor Sir David Edward, The Hon Judge Nicholas Forwood, Professor Sir Francis Jacobs, Professor Hugh Collins, Judge Koen Lenaerts, Sir Jeremy Lever, Sir David Neuberger, Professor Steve Weatherill, Paul Lasok, QC and Piers Gardner, QC.

Stephen Weatherill