Episode #3 of the Borderlines CJEU Series features CJEU Vice President Thomas von Danwitz in conversation with Professor Katerina Linos (Berkeley) and Professor Mark Pollack (Temple University). Vice President von Danwitz has been a Judge at the Court of Justice since his nomination by Germany in 2006. Elected as President of Chamber by fellow Judges, he sat at the Court in that function between October 2012 and October 2018. In October 2024, Judge von Danwitz was elected by his peers to serve as Vice President of the Court of Justice.

As the first guest welcomed back to conduct a second Borderlines interview, Vice President von Danwitz further develops his incisive observations regarding the CJEU’s fundamental role in Europe’s integration project. His renowned expertise on cases involving surveillance and the regulation of technology, and the role of the German Constitutional Court in dialogue with CJEU decisions, gives listeners a unique look behind recent impactful rulings. Vice President von Danwitz also reviews key Court concepts and functions such as judicial independence, injunction procedures, and the ongoing evolution of competences undertaken by Europe’s highest court.

Vice President von Danwitz read law, politics and modern history at the universities of Bonn and Geneva, completed his doctorate in law in Bonn in 1988, then graduated from the National School of Administration in Paris, France with an international diploma in public administration in 1990. He joined the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Bonn University in 1996 and was appointed to professor of public law and European law at the Ruhr University Bochum in the same year, where he later served as dean of the Faculty of Law. He taught German public law and European law at the University of Cologne, where he also directed the Institute of Public Law and Administrative Science.

Vice President von Danwitz has held several visiting professorships, including at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. In 2005, he completed a teaching and research fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. From 2004–2014, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of German Jurists (Ständige Deputation des Deutschen Juristentags). He has published numerous scholarly works in the field of German public law and European law. Among many accolades, Vice President von Danwitz was made a French Republic Knight of the National Order of Merit in 2002. He is also the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Université François Rabelais de Tours.