Members of the public are invited to hear Professor Dr Ninon Colneric, Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities discuss the essential role the European Court of Justice plays in maintaining the balance between the respective powers of the Community institutions (Commission, Council and Parliament) and those retained by the Member States. The Court is often called upon to settle questions of a constitutional nature or of major economic significance.
Dr Colneric is only the second female judge in the European Court of Justice and will highlight the role of the Court in her talk entitled The Court of Justice of the European Communities as a court deciding competence disputes. Professor Paul Beaumont, Head of School of Law and Professor of European Union and Private International Law at the University of Aberdeen said: "As citizens of the EU we all have an interest in knowing what are the limits of the competence of Union Institutions in making laws that will affect more than 400 million people. If these competencies are not properly constrained by the European Court of Justice and subsidiarity is not respected, then the role of the UK and Scottish Parliaments is reduced further than was intended by the governments of the Member States when they conferred competence on the institutions by the EU Treaties."
David Laing, Senior Partner at Ledingham Chalmers, sponsors of the annual public lecture commented: "This is a subject which is of interest to us not just as lawyers, but as business people and citizens of Europe. We think it is important to support discussion and debate on a very important issue for us all."
The European Community was established more than 40 years ago and is now poised to enter a period of maturity. Having become a frontier-free area in 1993, it is now moving towards political union following the
adoption of the Maastricht Treaty. Having welcomed the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995, it is preparing to strengthen its bonds with new partners from Central and Eastern Europe.