AG Eleanor Sharpston QC gives the annual Lasok Lecture

Quo vadis, civis Europeus?

The Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) had the pleasure to host Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU, Eleanor Sharpston QC, as part of the annual Lasok Lecture series. Her brilliant career at the bench and as a fellow in Cambridge led her on a path to the Court of Justice where she gave opinions on hundreds of cases, including prominent citizenship cases such as Zambrano case. The topic of the lecture was therefore the concept of EU citizenship and the prognosis for its future development.

 AG Sharpston started by drawing comparisons to ancient times where conquering tribes had to make decisions on either incorporating as citizens or annihilating other, defeated by them tribes. She indicated that history taught us that hasty, emotional decision-making could later be regretted but that most such decisions could be reversed (hint: Brexit).

It was a fascinating lecture, going into details of many cases of the CJEU on EU citizenship (Zambrano, McCarthy, Dereci amongst others) and showing the gathered students and members of the staff a glimpse into the inner working mechanisms of the Court.

The CELS holds the annual Lasok Lecture to commemorate the memory of professor Dominic Lasok QC who was one of the pioneers of European Law in the UK. Prominent guest speakers in the field of EU Law are invited every year, most recently in 2017 - Professor Steve Peers (University of Essex) and in 2016 - Diana Wallis (University of Hull)."

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