Legal Leadership in the European Union

Leadership does not always come from leaders. Laws provide for its exercise or constraint and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gives legal but not political leadership. The 2005 constitutional treaty did not create a favourable climate of opinion for the proposed changed EU leadership through a stable president of the European Council. Nor would it have transformed the ECJ into a genuine constitutional court through its discretion on remedies. Its main contribution is as the reactive leader of the legal community of national judges in implementation of Union — wide norms with an integrationist bent. The ECJ's interpretive approach is preoccupied with achieving uniformity and consistency of integration in the market for goods and the treatment of individuals