A few days ago, HRH Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg awarded the honour of Grand Officier of the Ordre de Mérite to Eleanor Sharpston, in recognition of her work at the Court of Justice of the European Union.

This comment from Fiona Godfrey is most apt: “Glad to see Eleanor Sharpston recognised by Luxembourg in the absence of an honour from the UK. Her work as an AG contributed greatly to the protection and enhancement of EU citizens’ rights and their family members and she made thousands of lives safer and better.”

Sharpston has always been a tireless defender of legal translators’ work – as demonstrated when she accepted to open the first WordstoDeeds conference at Gray’s Inn in 2017.

We offer our wholehearted congratulations on this highly deserved honour, to a unique, down-to-earth and incredible woman – and hope it will be the first of many more.

You might enjoy this video from 2019, in which she is interviewed about her life by First100Years, a project to chart the journey of women in law over the last one hundred years.

one of the richnesses of the court is people from different legal traditions – all reading the same text against their different legal backgrounds.