Dinner in honor of Judge da Cruz Vilaça

Introductory Remarks

By way of introduction, Mark Powell presented the guest of honor Judge da Cruz Vilaça’s career. Starting with academia, he explained that Judge da Cruz Vilaça obtained his Law degree and Master’s degree in Economics at Coimbra University in Portugal, before becoming a Doctor in economics at Sorbonne University in Paris. He continued with Judge da Cruz Vilaça’s role in the Portuguese government when he became Secretary of State for Home Affairs, then Secretary of State for European Affairs in the early 1980s during the preparation of Portugal’s entry into the European Union. Later, Judge da Cruz Vilaça became Advocate General for the European Court Justice. In 1989, he became the first President of the Court of First Instance (now the General Court) when it was created. In 1996, he returned to Lisbon and joined a private practice where he worked as a lawyer for seventeen years. In 2012, he became a Judge at the European Court of Justice (ECJ). He was ‘juge rapporteur’ for several landmark competition cases such as Post Danmark II and Intel.