A plea for studying (and loving) the EU Law

The speech delivered by Dr. Octavia Spineanu-Matei, President of the Eighth Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union, entitled “A plea for studying (and loving) EU law,” was published in A.U.B.D. – Legal Forum No. 1/2026, on the occasion of the events marking the conferral of an honorary doctorate upon Professor Dr. Koen Lenaerts, President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, held at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest on March 27, 2026.

The speech highlights, by referring to several cases pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the scope and diversity of situations in which Union law applies and calls for constant dialogue between national courts and the European court. Examples drawn from the fields of copyright law, family law, judicial cooperation in criminal matters, and competition law illustrate the cross-cutting nature of European Union law and its presence in a wide variety of legal fields. The central idea of the discourse is that European Union law should not be viewed as a secondary discipline in relation to the so-called “fundamental” legal disciplines, but rather as a structural component of contemporary legal education and practice. From this perspective, the author issues a call directed particularly at law students, emphasizing that, regardless of the legal profession they choose, a rigorous understanding of European Union law will, sooner or later, become indispensable.