News from the Law Section #

January 2013#

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• In the Bergen Conference the Law Section could welcome the following new Members, Professors
  • Alenka Selih, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Brigitte Tag, University of Zurich, Switzerland
  • Ewoud Hondius, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Thomas M.J. Möllers, University of Augsburg, Germany
  • Kurt Seelmann, University of Basel, Switzerland.

• At the meeting of the Council in Bergen, the following colleagues were approved for election:
  • Nina Dethloff, University of Bonn, Germany
  • Tone Sverdrup, University of Oslo, Norway
  • Sarah Elizabeth Worthington, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • Dirk Gustaaf Maria Heirbaut, University of Genth, Belgium
  • Alain Strowel, Université Saint-Louis, Brussels, Belgium
  • Daniel Gervais, Vanderbild University, Nashville, USA (foreign)
  • Janez Kranjc, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • André Thomashausen, University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, South Africa (foreign)

• With the admission of 14 new Members during the last three years, the Section has now reached a size which will enable us to become visible at annual conferences of the Academy in the future.

• The Law Section Committee met in Munich on December 13, 2012, in order to discuss the activities of the Section at the 25th annual conference, which will be held on September 17-19 in Wroclaw, Poland, where the Chairman of the Welcome Committee will be Dr. Rafal Dutkiewicz, the energetic Mayor of Wroclaw and Honorary Member of the Academy. The Committee has thoroughly discussed the suggestions received from the Section membership for the topics which could be dealt with in Wroclaw. Those topics were:
  • The future of the international energy law,
  • Democracy models of the European integration,
  • The future of the migration law and the “law relating to aliens” [Fremdenrecht],
  • The future of the autonomy of universities and the freedom of science and research,
  • The Demise of the Principle of Equality of Economic Actors in Private Law,
  • The Legitimacy Crisis in the Era of Secret Negotiations and Lobbying
  • The European Ideal as Challenge.

After some deliberations and bearing in mind that in Wroclaw the Academy will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary, the Committee was unanimously of the opinion that the most appropriate overarching topic for a workshop in Wroclaw would be

• As regards the specific program of the workshop, the following has been proposed to the Board and accepted: The workshop will take place on Tuesday, September 17, 14:30-18:00, and be structured in two parts
  • the first part will be titled "The Impact of the Past on the Future",
  • the second will be under the heading “Civis Europeus sum - The European Citizen”
  • Moderator of the workshop will be Prof. Ditlev Tamm, University of Copenhagen, Member of the Law Section Committee.

• The topics and the speakers in the first part will be:
  • "The Idea of a Union" – Professor Dirk G.M. Heirbaut, Genth, Belgium (accepted)
  • "The Role of Constitutions and Courts” - Professor Dieter Grimm, Berlin, Germany (accepted)

• The topics and the speakers in the second part will be:
  • "Civis Europeus sum" – Attorney-General Eleanor Sharpston (invited)
  • "Evolution and Perspectives" - Professor Kaarlo H. Tuori, Helsinki, Finland (accepted)

• It is planned to have a lunch of all Law Section Members preceding the workshop.

• The Law Section will also be present in the main program by a session jointly organized with the Economics, Business and Management Sciences Section, which will be titled "The European Challenge in Uncertain Futures". In this session, Professor Kai Konrad, Munich, shall speak on “The European Debt Crisis, its Development and Possible Solutions”. An additional lecture will be given by Professor Guido Tabellini, Universitá Bocconi, Milan. The exact title of his presentation still has to be agreed upon. The two talks will be followed by a panel discussion, in which the Chairs of the two Sections, i.e. Peter Nijkamp and Joseph Straus, possibly with a fifth panelist, will discuss the issues addressed by the speakers.

• Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Academy in such a splendid environment as Wroclaw, will hopefully attract as many Law Section Members as possible to attend. The Section Committee very much looks forward to welcoming in Wroclaw as many as possible.

Report on Activities of the Law Section of Academia Europaea