Which ECJ judges owe their jobs to Berlusconi the briber?

[He3]

Very wise.

[He3]

For reference:

http://www.politics.ie/lisbon-treaty...ml#post2020409

To summarise the position so far:

2003: 81.55% of laws were of EU origin
2004: 77.09% of laws were of EU origin
2008: 77.96% of laws were of EU origin

That's quite consistent really - it's inevitable that things will fluctuate from year to year but it's coming out at something in the region of 80%.

[He3]

So he gets to nominate one to the ECJ and one more to the Court a step below the ECJ in the pecking order. Won't be long now given the age of the incumbents.

Who will he favour?

[Gadfly]

Judges and advocate generals are both appointed for six year terms, which are renewable. So he should have the chance to nominate, if his government lasts. And if his allies don't finally rebel at his increasingly erratic behaviour.

Would be interesting to see his pick, considering that his stated belief that Italy's judges are all far left and have a political agenda. But doesn't have to be a sitting judge. His own in-house lawyer, Previti, whom he made Minister for Justice (poacher, gamekeeper and all that), might fancy his chances.

Presumably he won't be nominating Senator Marcello dell'Utri to anything else anytime soon, since the guy was finally done for mafia links. (Dell'Utri has been found guilty of tax fraud, false accounting, and complicity in conspiracy with the Sicilian Mafia - Marcello Dell'Utri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

These left wing judges, such a nuisance! L'etat, c'est moi!

[He3]

Judges and advocate generals are both appointed for six year terms, which are renewable. So he should have the chance to nominate, if his government lasts. And if his allies don't finally rebel at his increasingly erratic behaviour.

Would be interesting to see his pick, considering that his stated belief that Italy's judges are all far left and have a political agenda. But doesn't have to be a sitting judge. His own in-house lawyer, Previti, whom he made Minister for Justice (poacher, gamekeeper and all that), might fancy his chances.

Presumably he won't be nominating Senator Marcello dell'Utri to anything else anytime soon, since the guy was finally done for mafia links. (Dell'Utri has been found guilty of tax fraud, false accounting, and complicity in conspiracy with the Sicilian Mafia - Marcello Dell'Utri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

These left wing judges, such a nuisance! L'etat, c'est moi!

Previti is a name to remember so.

[He3]

He is on the cover of Newsweek this week.




Right under the words

DUMP BERLUSCONI

[He3]

The Judge who declared Berlusconi 'co-responsible' for bribing Judges is in the firing line.

Days after Judge Raimondo Mesiano ordered the Italian prime minister's holding company to pay 750 million euros (£680 million) in damages to a rival, the media mogul's Canale 5 channel aired footage of the judge taking a walk, smoking and having a shave at the barber.

Dubbing the judge's behaviour "eccentric", a narrator pointed to him smoking his "umpteenth" cigarette, called his turquoise socks "strange" and said: "He's impatient ... he can only relax at the barber's."

[,,,]

Furious that the judge was shadowed during his leisure time without his knowledge, the National Association of Magistrates asked the privacy authorities to intervene. The authorities said they were evaluating the matter.

This is one Judge not on Berlusconi's list for elevation to the European Courts.

Link

[He3]

In 2007, senator Cesare Previti, a one-time Berlusconi family lawyer, was given a definitive 18- month sentence for bribing appeals court judge Vittorio Metta in relation to the Mondadori takeover. In his recent sentence, Judge Mesiano also ruled that Mr Berlusconi was “co-responsible” for the bribery.

Commenting on that sentence on a news programme on Canale 5, the prime minister called Judge Mesiano a “very active, extreme left judge”. Later he said: “We’ll be hearing some nice ones about that judge.”

Berlusconi TV channel under scrutiny for secretly taping judge - The Irish Times - Tue, Oct 20, 2009

[He3]

The silence here on this member of the European Council is interesting.

[He3]

Judges and advocate generals are both appointed for six year terms, which are renewable. So he should have the chance to nominate, if his government lasts. And if his allies don't finally rebel at his increasingly erratic behaviour.

Would be interesting to see his pick, considering that his stated belief that Italy's judges are all far left and have a political agenda. But doesn't have to be a sitting judge. His own in-house lawyer, Previti, whom he made Minister for Justice (poacher, gamekeeper and all that), might fancy his chances.

Presumably he won't be nominating Senator Marcello dell'Utri to anything else anytime soon, since the guy was finally done for mafia links. (Dell'Utri has been found guilty of tax fraud, false accounting, and complicity in conspiracy with the Sicilian Mafia - Marcello Dell'Utri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

These left wing judges, such a nuisance! L'etat, c'est moi!

More on those damn Commies:

Berlusconi decries 'communist' judges
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi gave a foretaste of how he may defend himself when he goes back on trial for corruption next month, attacking the Italian judicial system as overrun by "communists" out to destroy him.

“The real Italian anomaly is not Silvio Berlusconi but communist prosecutors and communist judges in Milan who have attacked him again and again since he entered politics and decided to attack the power of the communists," an angry Mr Berlusconi said on television last night.

The comment in a telephone call to the show from his home, was his first public reaction to a ruling by a Milan court hours earlier which upheld a conviction against British lawyer David Mills for accepting a bribe from Mr Berlusconi in 1997.

Berlusconi decries 'communist' judges - The Irish Times - Wed, Oct 28, 2009

How did they get to be judges anyway?