José Luís da Cruz Vilaça, managing partner of Cruz Vilaça Advogados, former Judge and Advocate-General at the Court of Justice of the EU and former President of the General Court of the EU, was one of the speakers at the International Congress “Independencia Judicial Y Estado de Derecho” (“Judicial Indepedence and the Rule of Law”), which took place on October 4, 5 and 6 at the Complutense University (Madrid). His intervention focused mainly on the case law of the Court of Justice on the rule of law, as well as on its complementarity and convergence with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). For José Luís da Cruz Vilaça, "only within the framework of a union of free countries committed to the common values of the Treaties will it be possible to deal with the challenges of a new era of autocrats that is re-emerging and closing an iron circle around us". Síofra O'Leary, current President of the ECtHR, was also a speaker in the same panel.