On the occasion of the EUI Degree Conferring Ceremony 2024, the Department of Law conferred this year's EUI Doctor Honoris Causa Degree to Professor Sacha Prechal for her outstanding academic contributions and achievements in a wide array of topics related to European Law. Amongst others, Professor Prechal has extensively contributed to the scholarship on EU fundamental rights, non-discrimination law, the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the interaction between EU law and national legal systems, as well as the development of general principles of EU law. Her expertise is reflected not only through the publication of numerous articles and book contributions, but also in her commitment to law as a member of the editorial board of several national and international legal journals.
Professor Prechal has especially left a mark on the study and development of the concept of effective judicial protection of individuals through EU law, playing a key role in redefining this concept in the context of the rule of law debate within the EU, both through academic research and as a juge rapporteur.
During her speech delivered at the EUI Degree Conferring Ceremony, Professor Prechal approached her lifelong engagement in law and EU law in particular. On the vital debate on rule of law and democratic erosion, she emphasised that "the process of rule of law backsliding is often a deceptively gradual process. It requires vigilance and courage to intervene." To address this challenge, "it is important to continue to think and act upon this on different levels. One of them is the level of universities, traditionally strongholds of autonomous and critical thinking. EUI is one of them," shared Professor Prechal.
Sacha Prechal was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1959. She completed her studies in Dutch public law at the University of Groningen in 1983 and obtained a Doctor of Laws from the University of Amsterdam in 1995. Her academic career began in 1983, when her legal studies led her to become a Law Lecturer in the Law Faculty of the University of Maastricht until 1987, a position she held again from 1991 to 1995 at the Europa Institute of the Law Faculty of the University of Amsterdam, after having worked as a référendaire at the Court of Justice of the European Union. She became Professor of European Law in the Law Faculty of Tilburg University from 1995 to 2003, and then in the Law Faculty of Utrecht University.
Professor Prechal was appointed as a judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union on 10 June 2010. Having been elected by her peers as President of the Chamber on 9 October 2018, she has continued to serve in that function ever since. Professor Prechal also holds a Doctor Honoris Causa Degree from Tilburg University.