Koen Lenaerts


Koen Lenaerts, Baron Lenaerts is the President of the Court of Justice of the European Union. He is also a Professor of European Law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and was a member of the Coudenberg group, a Belgian federalist think tank.

Education

Lenaerts obtained a candidate in law in 1974 at the Université de Namur. In 1977, he graduated with a licentiate in law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He then went on to earn a Master of Laws degree at Harvard Law School in 1978, with a Belgian Fulbright scholarship, and a Master in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1979. In 1982, he obtained a PhD in law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Career

Since 1983, Lenaerts has been Professor of European Law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, since 1990 with the title of buitengewoon hoogleraar. He is director of the Institute of European Law of the university. From 1984 until 1989, he was Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. From 1984 until 1985, he was Law clerk to Judge René Joliet at the Court of Justice of the European Communities. From 1986 until 1989, he was a Member of the Brussels Bar acting as attorney in the European Court of Justice, on behalf of the Belgian state. He was made an Honorary Master of the Bench of the Inner Temple, London, in 2010.
From 1989 until 6 October 2003 he was Judge of the European Court of First Instance, and since 7 October 2003 he has been a Judge at the European Court of Justice, where he became Vice President in 2012.
In October 2015 he became President of the Court of Justice of the European Union and on 9 October 2018, he was reelected as its President. His mandate should end on 6 October 2021.
In 2004 Lenaerts was ennobled a baron by King Albert II, King of the Belgians.

Other activities