The UAB to award an honorary doctorate to Koen Lenaerts, president of the Court of Justice of the European Union

Koen Lenaerts also teaches at the College of Europe in Bruges, the most prestigious centre for European studies, and is a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. He has also been a visiting professor at many other academic institutions. He is the author of more than 300 publications in prestigious journals worldwide and has given more than a hundred lectures and seminars.

He has formed part of the Court of Justice of the European Union since 1984, where he was a judge of the court of first instance, judge of the court of justice, vice-president and, since 2015 until now, president of the institution. During his years as a judge, Lenaerts was involved in numerous court decisions and the case law handed down has been relevant for the advancement of the European Union. He has contributed greatly to issues such as the consolidation of the EU itself or the defense of individual rights. He has left his mark in judgments on consumer protection, internal market, transport, area of freedom, security and justice, etc.

This award is intended as a tribute to “his jurisdictional activity, his doctrinal contribution and his commitment to a fairer, more supportive and more committed Europe with its values and a future of peace and stability, serving as a model for the rest of the world”. This honorary doctorate also aims to underline the Europeanist commitment of the UAB and, especially, the importance of European studies, which have made “our university a benchmark in this field within the social sciences” in the over forty years since its founding.