Activism on and off the bench: Pierre Pescatore and the law of integration

Abstract

This article examines the life and career of Pierre Pescatore, one of the most prominent, but also controversial, promoters of European Community law. Drawing on extensive archive material, as well as interviews with relatives, it aims at understanding how and why he left such a strong footprint on the development of Community, later EU, law, both as a judge at the European Court of Justice and as a law scholar. Going beyond a one-man story, the article situates him in the broader context of the 1970s bench of judges in order to understand the so-called “activism” which the ECJ revealed during this decade. Thus, looking through the lens of one of the leading figures of the Court, it provides new explanations as to why the ECJ’s case law was so provocatively pro-integrationist during the 1970s.