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Christian Pennera
Authority, had nine members. Indeed, Article 10 of the Protocol of the Statute of
the Court, which was signed together with the Treaty proper, provided for the presence
of two Advocates General who, while they were not party to the judgments
reached, nevertheless had "acting with complete impartiality and independence, to
make, in open court, reasoned submissions on cases brought before the Court, in
order to assist the Court in the performance of its task" 11 . Thus the "commissaire
du gouvernement" known only in French courts now appeared on the scene at the
Court of Justice. It was expected of these two persons, who spoke in public and
before the judges deliberated, that they should have the same influence which the
"commissaires du gouvernement" had exerted in the evolution of domestic administrative
law in France 12 .
At the Paris Conference in July 1952, the holders of office were appointed initially
and their final appointment did not take place until 2 December 1952. The judges
appointed were the Belgian lawyer, Delvaux, the Luxembourg judge, Hammes,
the Dutch diplomat and specialist in economic affairs, Van Kleffens, together with
his colleague the Christian trade union leader, Serrarens, the French economist,
Rueff and the German professor and member of Germany's Bundesverfassungsgericht,
Riese.
The office of President went to the Italian lawyer Pilotti who, like Monnet, was
a one-time member of the General Secretariat of the League of Nations. Maurice
Lagrange and Karl Roemer were appointed Advocates General 13 , so the Court
9. "persons (...) 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 jurisconsults of
recognized competence (...)", is a form of words employed from 1958 onwards in Article 32 b of
the ECSC Treaty and subsequently in Article 167 of the EC Treaty.
10. After the first enlargement the figure was raised to nine, which was the exact number of Member
States, then to eleven with the accession of Greece, the tenth Member State, and finally to thirteen.
Contrary to the case for members of the High Authority there was no nationality requirement and
we do not know why. The parallel advanced by some, see above in Note 6, with members of the
International Court of Justice who are elected without regard to their nationality is not convincing,
because the aim in this last-mentioned case is not to guarantee as it were eclectic recruitment but
rather to avoid such and such a post going to a particular nationality in a body consisting of fifteen
members, a figure less than that of the number of signatory states to the UN Charter. In fact, no
person not a national of one of the Member States has ever sat on the Communities' Court of
Justice and all the Member States have always been represented on it.
11. The provisions relating to the Advocates General and the Registrar were to be incorporated into the
text of the Treaty proper in 1957.
12. C.O. LENZ, "Aus der Praxis des Generalanwalts am EUGH", Vorträge und Berichte, Institut für
Integrationsforschung, Hamburg 1985, 29 pp.
13. Official Journal of the ECSC, 10.2.1953, No. 1 p. 16. The name of the personality put forward in
July to represent France was not Jacques Rueff but René Mayer. Germany had not announced any
name ; the Advocate general, Roemer, was not even appointed, in reality, until 16 January 1953 but
the appointment became effective, as was the case for the other members, as of 4 December 1952.
Regarding the negotiations that went on concerning some of the persons involved, reference is
made to two letters, J. Monnet to R. Schuman, 22 July 1952 in J. Monnet –,R. Schuman, Correspondance
1947-1953, Fondation J. Monnet pour l'Europe, Lausanne 1986, pp. 150-153. For a
general view see N. CONDORELLI BRAUN, Commissaires et juges dans les Communautés européennes,
Paris 1972, 232 pp.