Drawing on expertise from across the worlds of the judiciary, the bar, and legal academia, this book provides fascinating insights into the role of a key Member State and how its legal influence informs the wider Union’s development.This collection sheds light on the Italian influence on European law by examining the judicial biographies of Italian judges and advocates general during almost five decades of the European Union. It explores the national ties of judges and advocates general to their Member States, to better understand the continuous relationship between the members of the EU judiciary and their Member States’ governments and how they practise the principle of judicial independence, a central pillar of the ECJ’s rule of law jurisprudence.