Court of Justice of the European Communities

Talk by Judge Meij

By Gülşah Akdemir

On Wednesday April 26^th we visited the Court of Justice of the European Communities. We had the privilege to attend the hearing of the Court of First Instance in the Microsoft case. Unfortunately, the part of the hearing which we attended was very technical, which, combined with the early start, meant that some of the attendees had troubles keeping their eyes opened during the hearing in the comfortable chairs.

After the hearing we had lunch offered by the Court with the presence of Judge Meij, Mr Baumé, Mr Ronkes Agerbeek and Mr Inghelram. It was Judge Meij who made it possible for us to attend such an important case. The lunch was delicious. After the lunch Judge Meij spoke to us about the Microsoft case. There were a few questions asked by our group. One question was about how the judges prepared themselves for the case. Judge Meij answered that the judges were provided with some background information about the technical issues by the ICT Department of the Court. He also told us that the judges of the Court now have to decide whether the Microsoft case should be dealt with under the conditions that were made in the IMS Health case. There was another question about the political influence in, and the political importance of, the Microsoft case, to which Judge Meij declined to answer one way or another.

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