Cette occasion a permis d'appréhender un demi-siècle de jurisprudence et de constater que, au fil de ses arrêts, la juridiction communautaire a révélé les principes fondamentaux implicites dans le texte et la structure des traités fondateurs et a défini, par la consécration jurisprudentielle de ces principes, les traits caractéristiques de l'ordre juridique communautaire.
That event provided the opportunity to take stock of half a century of judicial activity, and to recognise how, by its judgments over the years, the Community judicature has brought to light the fundamental principles which were implicit in the wording and the structure of the founding treaties and has defined, by giving judicial expression to those principles, the characteristic features of the Community legal order.