Background
Mertens de Wilmars was born in Sint-Niklaas, into a family of brewers.
Mertens de Wilmars was born in Sint-Niklaas, into a family of brewers.
He gained a degree in law in 1934, and practiced in Antwerp, specialising in administrative law. He was an officer in the Belgian Army in the Second World War, and spent most of the war as a prisoner of war. He was in favour of European unity, and attended the Congress in the Hague in 1948.
He also taught administrative law at the High Institute for Administrative Sciences in Antwerp from 1946 to 1967, and was an associate professor in law at the Catholic University of Leuven from 1971.
He died in Antwerp.
After the war, he a member of the Belgian Catholic alliance, and was a member of the Belgian parliament from 1951 to 1962. He became a member of the European Court of Justice in 1967, and served as its sixth President from 1980 to 1984.