In defence of the European Court of Justice

This article is the basis for the Graduation Lecture (Maarten J. Ellis Lecture) delivered by Prof. Frans Vanistendael on 30 August 2007 at the International Tax Center Leiden (LLM Program in International Taxation) at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. It includes a summary of criticisms levelled at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and discusses what the ECJ should do.