a kaleidoscope of people Stereotypes about European national particularities can be found in abundance. In the 1990s an article on Swedish legal tradition andEUlaw had a picture of eight ways to advertise a hammer.2 TheUKadvert would market ahammer as having aroyal warrant fromHer Majesty the Queen; the German advert would have it being approved by German scientist; the Italian advert, as an amore hammer, irresistible to women; and the Swedish advert would have the hammer not hurting the nails and being environmentally friendly. All very well, but what truth is there in national differences? If something as simple as a hammer would have to be culturally embedded in so many ways to sell successfully, will the cultural and legal backgrounds of individual judges matter at the two European courts when deciding controversial issues of law? Because of the multinational design of theECtHRandCJEU, there is a richer diversity on the bench than there would be in national settings. The layers of differences vary, from language to law, from political embeddedness to vocational experience. Each judge has trained long and hard in the legal systems of the member states, and brings to the bench their legal experience, individual vocational experience, individual historical political experience, and different legal culture, all marked by national particularities. Do we see that differences in background such as legal family, historical political experience, or vocational experience have a measurable impact on their decision-making? Do the national legal cultures embodied in the individual members of court divide the members? If so, this would mean there are insurmountable cleavages between the European legal systems. Or, have both courts created distinct legal cultures of their own that absorb all differences? In adding another layer, we will look at human rights claims, as they often concern morally sensitive issues. If these issues are taken to internationally staffed benches, conflicts based on differences in background should be easier to detect. 2 See Sven Norberg, ‘Reflexioner över svenska rättstraditioner i en europeisk rättsmiljö’, Juridisk Tidskrift (1994/1995), 378. 299 Why look?
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