The European Law Institute

• Published date: 01 March 2012
• Date: 01 March 2012
• Author: Francis Jacobs
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0386.2011.00601.x

eulj_601175..176

The European Law Institute

I The Role and Mission of the European Law Institute

The European Law Institute, founded in 2011, aims, as an entirely independent organi-

sation, to improve the quality of European law, understood in the broad sense. It seeks

to initiate, conduct and facilitate research, to make recommendations, and to provide

practical guidance in the field of European legal development.

The Institute has high ambitions, reflected in its Manifesto and in its Articles of

Association. It will study and stimulate European legal development in a global

context. That should be taken to include, but by no means be limited to, the develop-

ment of European law by the EU and the Council of Europe. It will include other fields

of national law. It may also include the development of international law, both public

and private.

The launch of the European Law Institute was a remarkable event on many counts.

It followed a long and carefully managed period of preparation. That preparation

involved the talents—and hard work—of some of the leading figures in European law.

We owe them a great debt.

The process of founding the Institute as a pan-European body generated a high

degree of enthusiasm for the idea, an enthusiasm that has been reflected in the many

expressions of interest and the large number of applications for membership. The

launch itself, at the Paris Congress on 1 June 2011, was attended by a galaxy of leading

jurists from all parts of Europe and beyond. The Congress was addressed by eminent

personalities, all of whom expressed strong support for the Institute. The Institute is

now established at the University of Vienna, where an inaugural ceremony was held on

17 November 2011, and where the Secretariat is based.

It seems clear that the Institute, with the active participation of its Members, with

direction from its Council and with guidance from its Senate, will fill a widely recog-

nised need: indeed, one of the remarkable aspects is that it has not been created

before.

The Institute will be uniquely broad in its membership, bringing together scholars,

practitioners and judges from the whole of Europe. It is not intended for pure academic

research, but rather to promote, on the basis of the best academic and practical

experience available, ideas for the development of the law which will have a real impact

in practice.

The Institute may also be active in the field of legal education, promoting the

teaching of European law and international and comparative law, again with a prac-

tical perspective. It will promote the exchange of ideas and best practices in the

development and application of the law.

The key to the Institute’s success will lie largely in the projects it accomplishes; it will

seek to bring an added value to all that it undertakes.

The Institute has already embarked on its first project, which will advise on the

European Commission’s initiative for a European Sales Law. Several other projects are

currently being considered.

European Law Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2, March 2012, pp. 175–176.

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