The Law Department hosts its inaugural event of the 2024-2025 academic year.
After half a century of existence, is it possible to identify one or more legal traditions that have either emerged or have been cultivated in the Law Department of the European University Institute (EUI)? The EUI founding treaty of 1972 defined the central purpose of the EUI as contributing, in education and research, to the development of Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage , while taking into account relations with cultures outside Europe . In 1976, the first EUI professors, including three law professors, were appointed. Since then, law professors from multiple nationalities, legal disciplines and professional backgrounds have joined the Department. Despite this diversity, the Law Department has over time developed a distinctive academic identity. On the one hand, the Department has translated the general aim of the EUI into a research and teaching mission. The Law Department is defined by its European, international, contextual and comparative character. On the other hand, two additional principles have emerged to guide the Law Department as a legal research institution. First, the Department did not seek to emulate any national law school, but rather to foster the transnational study of law. Second, the Department did not seek thematic comprehensiveness, but rather deep expertise in European and international legal studies and innovative research approaches and methods.
How is this academic identity reflected in the Law Department scholarly work?
The 2024 Inaugural Lecture will try to answer that question by showing how the Law Department's work addresses contemporary existential challenges like the protection of democracy and the rule of law; global environmental, humanitarian, health, and economic crises; and fast technological change.
The session will be opened by Professor Nicolas Petit, Head of the Law Department.