Bernardus Smulders
Judge, Court of Justice of the European Union
Born in 1960 in The Hague (Netherlands), Mr Smulders obtained a Master of Laws from the Universiteit Leiden (Leiden University, Netherlands) in 1983. He continued his studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (United Kingdom) where he obtained a Master of Laws in 1984. In 2010, he attended training at the London Business School (United Kingdom), in 2011 at INSEAD Fontainebleau (INSEAD Business School, France) and in 2018 at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (USA).
In 1985, Mr Smulders started his professional career as a lawyer at the Amsterdam Bar, a position he held until 1990.
He joined the European Commission’s Legal Service in 1991, where he worked until 1994 in the ‘Free movement of capital, freedom of establishment, freedom to provide services, taxation, customs union and economic and monetary union’ team and the ‘State aid control and anti-dumping’ team.
Mr Smulders continued his career at the Commission as a member of the cabinet of the Commissioner for External Relations and Enlargement, Mr Hans van den Broek (from 1995 to 1999), of the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Taxation and Customs Union, Mr Frits Bolkestein (from 1999 to2000) and of the President, Mr Romano Prodi (from 2000 to 2004). From 2004 to 2008, he was Head of Cabinet to the Commissioner for Competition, Ms Neelie Kroes, then Principal Legal Adviser, as Director, to the ‘Institutions and economic and monetary union’ team in the Commission’s Legal Service (from 2008 to 2014). He became Head of Cabinet of the First Vice-President of the Commission, Mr Frans Timmermans (from 2014 to 2019), then Senior Legal Adviser, as Director, to the ‘World trade organisation and trade policy’ team of the Commission’s Legal Service (from 2020 to 2022). From 2022 to 2024, he was Deputy Director-General in the Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition where he was responsible for State aid control.
Since 2012, he has occasionally acted as a substitute Judge at the civil and commercial chamber of the Gerechtshof Den Haag (Court of Appeal, The Hague, Netherlands), dealing in particular with cases concerning State liability for infringements of EU law, public international law or issues of immunity from execution of third countries. He has also dedicated himself to an academic career, primarily in international and European law, as a lecturer at the Fondazione Collegio Europeo di Parma (European College of Parma, Italy) since 2003 and at the université Paris-Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University, France) since 2019, and as a visiting professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels, Belgium) as well as at the Collège d’Europe de Bruges (College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium) since 2013. He also taught at the Universiteit van Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) and the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands) from 1994 to 2005. From 2002 to 2022, Mr Smulders was a member and then Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Europa Instituut at the Faculty of Law of the Universiteit Leiden. From 2008 to 2024, he was a member of the editorial board of the Common Market Law Review.
He is the author of numerous books and articles, particularly in the areas of competition law, institutional law, protection of the rule of law, the internal market and the economic and Monetary union.
Mr Smulders was appointed as a Judge at the Court of Justice on 7 October 2024.
Kommende Veranstaltungen mit Bernardus Smulders: