This project will examine the production of the multilingual jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), aiming to elaborate a new understanding of the development of EU 'constitutional law'. The development of a rule of law within the EU is due in a large part to the judicial pronouncements of the ECJ. To date there has been no study which has taken account of the fact that the jurisprudence of the ECJ consists primarily of collegiate judgments drafted by jurists in a language that is generally not their mother tongue, undergoes many permutations of translation into and out of up to 23 different languages and is necessarily shaped by the way in which that Court functions as a multilingual, multicultural organisation, and the dynamics between actors within that Court (with the notable exception of the body of work built up by the PI in the current project proposal). Nor has there been any consideration of the important LINGUISTIC aspect of the role of the Advocate General in the formation of EU law. This project will build up on innovative research already carried out by the PI and will bring together theories and methodologies from research fields which traditionally pay little attention to each other (linguistic theories, anthropological research methods and law): examining the ECJ's jurisprudence, specifically through translation and taking account of the cultural compromises by which that Court functions, and considering the implications for the understanding and application of EU law.