Organization of the Court of Justice

As of January 2007, the Court of Justice is made up of 27 Judges and 8 Advocates General. Should the Court so request, the Council of the European Union may, acting unanimously, increase the number of Advocates General. The Judges and Advocates General are appointed by common accord of the governments of the member states and hold office for a renewable term of six years. They are chosen from legal experts 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 of recognised competence.

President

The Judges select one of their number to be President of the Court for a renewable term of three years. He or she may be re-elected. The President directs the judicial business and the administration of the Court; he presides at hearings and deliberations in chambers. He or she assigns the cases to one of the chambers for any preparatory inquiries and appoints a Judge from the chamber to act as rapporteur. He or she sets the dates and timetable for the sessions of the Grand Chamber and of the full Court. The President also personally takes a decision on requests for the application of interim measures.

Judges

Each member state of the European Union has the power to nominate one judge, so their number coincides most of the time with the number of member states. However, as the ECJ can only sit with an uneven number of judges, additional judges have been appointed at times when there was an even number of member states.