Friday 18 November 2011

Towards a European legal culture

The European Law Institute that was inaugurated in June (with a conference on which we posted earlier) has now officially opened its office in Vienna. Commissioner Reding was present at the first working meeting, dedicated to the proposal for a Common European Sales Law, and observed that:

'The European Law Institute will help build a European legal culture. More consistency between Europe's different legal systems will help strengthen mutual trust and our citizens' confidence in the EU's legal system, strengthening confidence in the European rule of law, which is the cement binding the European Union together. It will make the European area of justice concrete and real so that people can exercise their rights and take advantage of the Single Market's opportunities. The Institute will also bring added value to research on how EU law is implemented across the Union. It will engage in projects that will have concrete results for the daily lives of European citizens and legal practitioners.'

As regards European legal culture, the Oxford conference that I referred to in last Friday's post is now being advertised on the website of the Institute of European and Comparative Law.