a kaleidoscope of people Acceptance on the part of individual judges means that acceptance at the national level is anticipated.41 For long-term influence, several principles of national law were transplanted intoEUjurisprudence in order to provide a solution to a problem. A number of interviewees saw aside from the French dominance some German influence onCJEUdoctrine, such as the principle of proportionality.42 At theECtHR, judges from former Eastern Bloc states were seen to bring more experience of economic and social rights to the bench, but with approaches varying from the cautious to the proactive.43 Several interviewees found them reluctant to speak up during deliberations; others expressed surprise at how similar Eastern and Western approaches were, or how independent the Eastern approaches were to a case.44 Eastern newcomers did not change general trends at theECtHR, but they could change the balance of existing trends.45 The same was seen at the CJEU – that judges from Eastern states would not change the general trends, but did affect the pre-existing balances of approaches. Several CJEUinterviewees noted the tendency of Eastern judges to insert human rights perspectives into cases more frequently than Western colleagues did. 40 See Arold Lorenz et al. 2013, 119. 41 Ibid. 118. 42 Ibid. 116. 43 See Arold 2007, 71. 44 Ibid. 71. 45 Ibid. 72. 309 Historical and political embeddedness To maintain its legitimacy and the acceptability of its case law in the member states and to be very careful in the cooperation with the supreme courts of the member states and trying to prevent entering into open conflicts … is a very delicate balancing act that we have established. Of course, we must state the law independently and say what we think is the right interpretation, but at the same time, because quite often there is a margin, there are various interpretations that can be defended and when making up your mind you should not do so completely in isolation, but you should be aware that this is an international court, not a national court.’40
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