The EUI Department of Law marked its 50th anniversary on 17–18 September 2026 with a two-day conference at Villa Salviati, bringing together faculty, researchers, alumni, and staff. Fifty years after the Department opened its doors to 22 researchers in 1976, the anniversary gathered its community for two days of reflection on research, teaching, and the everyday life that has shaped it.
Opening the anniversary, Head of Department Nicolas Petit reflected on the Department’s distinctive character. As he noted, it is a place of transit: professors have fixed terms, researchers complete their PhDs, and each new generation eventually leaves. “No single mind in the room contains the full memory of the law department. Our memory is scattered,” he said. The anniversary was an opportunity to bring together the scattered pieces of a “single living organism that accumulates wisdom across generations.”
For Arnulf Becker Lorca, scientific organiser, this was also why the anniversary was conceived as a celebration not only of the Department’s scholarship, but of its everyday life. “We believe that the essence of the Department lies in the interplay between our researchers, our staff, our faculty, and our visitors," he said. Former professors and alumni returned to the EUI to share memories of their time at the Institute, alongside current members and a new generation just beginning their PhDs.
That continuity was made tangible by the Theses Tower (1976–2026), an installation in the Sala della Conchiglia bringing together every PhD thesis produced by the Department since 1976. Displayed as a single sculptural tower, it turned five decades of doctoral research into something participants could stand in front of and take in at once.
Across a programme of plenary sessions, panels and conversations, three generations of the Law community illustrated both how much the Department has changed and what has remained constant. Former researchers recalled discovering new approaches to legal scholarship, developing research interests through exchanges with colleagues, and navigating the practical realities of doing a PhD. Current members spoke about the importance of research rooted in academic freedom and innovative approaches.
Maria Estela Lopes, current PhD researcher, described what makes the EUI Law community distinctive: “The EUI Law Department is singular because, contrary to what happens with the law, it has no boundaries: it is not confined by jurisdiction, methodology, or hierarchy. Here, the law is approached from every perspective (…) and it is the community that makes this possible.” As she put it, “The diversity of the department is itself part of the method,” describing a community in which ideas develop through daily exchange with colleagues from different legal traditions, languages, and disciplines.
For Sarah Nouwen, former EUI Professor of International Law, the Department’s defining feature was intellectual independence. “The EUI has allowed me to do what I consider important – not what is important according to impact factors, performance indicators or career criteria, but what I consider important (…) Now that is academic freedom.”
The Department's research has moved across generations from constitutional and EU law to international and private law, feminist legal theory, and the regulation of technology. Reflecting on that evolution, EUI President Patrizia Nanz said: “I see a path that has grown richer and deeper with each generation, taking us to places that those who were here fifty years ago could never have imagined.”
For Nanz, this is what academic freedom makes possible: “The luxury of blue-sky research and academic freedom obliges universities to remain a place of critique, a place where society can reflect itself and imagine its future.”