Institute of European and Comparative Law Annual Report for 2014-2015 For further information please contact: The Administrator Institute of European and Comparative Law St Cross Building St Cross Road Oxford OX1 3UL [email protected] www.iecl.ox.ac.uk Introduction The academic year 2014-15 culminated with the Institute’s anniversary celebrations in late September. From its modest beginnings in 1995 the Institute has seen continuous growth over the past decades. It has established and nurtured numerous links with our continental partners, with regard to both teaching and research. Today, the Institute facilitates many of the Faculty’s research activities in European and comparative law, inter alia by organising the relevant lunchtime Discussion Groups and a raft of international conferences. Its particular focus is on the intersection of European and comparative law. This is particularly visible in the Institute’s book series published by Hart Publishing, the Studies of the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law, which will see the publication of its 20th volume later this year. A flavour of the topics that are on our research agenda is conveyed by the list of our most important events during the past academic year on p.28 below. The Institute promotes the Faculty’s teaching agenda by administering its undergraduate exchange programme, the largest of its kind in this country. The ‘Law with Law Studies in Europe’ degree (informally known as ‘Course 2’) sees 35 of our BA students take their third year away from Oxford, spending it at one of our European partner faculties in France, Germany, Italy, Spain or The Netherlands. As announced in last year’s Annual Report, we are currently working on an extension of ‘Course 2’ to two Asian universities. Negotiations with the National University of Singapore are far advanced, and we hope to conclude an exchange agreement with them soon. Closer to home, everyone at the Institute looks forward to the major building works that will transform the St Cross Building. Once completed, the Institute will finally move out of its cramped and dark facilities and occupy a much more appropriate part of the building. Unfortunately, the interim period will be challenging. The Institute was decanted to The Old Rectory behind the Westgate Centre. The move was not without disruptions, and the year that we will spend there will be difficult for everyone involved. Despite these challenges we managed to celebrate the anniversary with a major conference on ‘General Principles of Law in a Comparative and European Context’. The event saw a large number of high profile speakers from the UK, Europe and the United States, and of course Oxford. Yet, the September conference did not only celebrate the past. It also marked an important step towards the Institute’s future. After having been Director of the Institute for eleven years I will step down from the post to take up a new role as Director of the Max Planck Institute of European Legal History in Frankfurt from 1 October onwards. It has been a privilege to serve in this Faculty office for so many years and I am tremendously grateful to all the Institute’s staff, friends and supporters who have made these eleven years the most interesting and exciting period in my career. I am particularly grateful to Jenny Dix, the Institute’s administrator, for her excellent professional support over all these years. The Institute would not have been able to achieve anything without her hard work. I am delighted that the Faculty has appointed Professor John Cartwright to the Directorship. I could not think of anyone who would be better suited to lead the Institute towards the next 20 years of its existence. Stefan Vogenauer Linklaters Professor of Comparative Law and Director of the Institute 30 September 2015 2 Staff Academic Staff Professor Stefan Vogenauer, Linklaters Professor of Comparative Law and Director of the Institute Professor Stephen Weatherill, Jacques Delors Professor of European Law and Deputy Director of the Institute Professor Alexandra Braun, Academic Director of Undergraduate Exchange Programmes and Deputy Director of the Institute Professor Ulf Bernitz, Research Fellow, co-ordinator of the Oxford-Stockholm Collaboration Dr Laura Carlson, Stockholm Centre Oxford Fellow for 2014-15 Professor Ariel Ezrachi, Slaughter and May Professor of Competition Law, head of the Centre for Competition Law and Policy (CCLP) Dr Andreas von Goldbeck, DAAD Lecturer in German and EU Law Dr Geneviève Helleringer, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow Dr Rodrigo Momberg Uribe, Career Development Fellow in Comparative Law Dr Javier Garcia Oliva, Lecturer in Spanish Law Dr Konstanze von Papp, Erich Brost Career Development Fellow in German and EU Law Mr Nello Pasquini, Linklaters Teaching Fellow for Italian Law Dr Felix Steffek, Max Planck Fellow for 2014-15 Associated Research Fellows Professor Hugh Beale (University of Warwick) Professor Michal Bobek (College of Europe) Professor Anthony Bradley QC (Hon) (Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Edinburgh) Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart (Fellow of Merton College) Professor Gerhard Dannemann (Centre for British Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin) Dr Eric Descheemaeker (University of Edinburgh) Professor Mark Freedland (Emeritus Professor of Employment Law, St John’s College, Oxford) Professor Dorota Leczykiewicz (European University Institute, Florence) 3 Professor Justine Pila (Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford) Professor Jeremias Prassl (Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford) Mr Conor Quigley QC (Serle Court Chambers) Professor Wolf-Georg Ringe (Copenhagen Business School) Professor Simon Whittaker (Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford and Professor of European Comparative Law) Professor Katja Ziegler (Sir Robert Jennings Professor of International Law, University of Leicester) Administrator Ms Jenny Dix 4 Law with Law Studies in Europe and the European Student Exchange Programme The Institute continues to be responsible for the Faculty’s four-year BA in ‘Law with Law Studies in Europe’. This essentially is a variant on the regular Oxford law degree that includes an extra year spent at one of Oxford’s partner universities abroad. It is thus also frequently called ‘Law Course 2’. The following options are on offer: • Law and French Law with 15 students per year going to the University of Paris Panthéon-Assas; • Law and German Law with 12 students going to the Universities of Bonn, Konstanz, Munich or Regensburg; • Law and Italian Law with two students going to the University of Siena; • Law and Spanish Law with two students going to the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona; • Law and European Law with four students going to the University of Leiden. The Institute administers the programme, including the provision of preparatory teaching in foreign law and languages and keeping constant contact with the academic directors and the administrators of the exchange programmes in our partner universities. Within this framework, the Institute also provides a focus and support network for the students coming to Oxford from our partner universities under the Erasmus exchange agreements. These students are registered for the one-year Diploma in Legal Studies programme. With 35 incoming and 35 outgoing students per year, Course 2 is the biggest undergraduate exchange programme in the University. Overall, Course 2 remains one of the success stories of the Institute. Its graduates are highly sought after by big law firms which appreciate their linguistic skills, their experience abroad and the teaching they receive in Oxford. A detailed report on Course 2 for 2014-2015 was submitted to the Law Board for its meeting in June 2015 and can be viewed on the Law Faculty intranet. 5 Publications (a) Books Ulf Bernitz, Stephen Weatherill (with S de Vries) (eds), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as a Binding Instrument– Five Years Old and Growing (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015 forthcoming) Ulf Bernitz, Svensk och europeisk marknadsrätt 1, Konkurrensrätten och marknadsekonomins rättsliga grundvalar [Swedish and European Market Law 1. Competition Law and the Legal Foundations of the Market Economy], 4th edn (Stockholm: Wolters Kluwer, 2015) Michal Bobek (ed), Selecting Europe’s Judges: A Critical Review of Selection Procedures to the European Courts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) Michal Bobek (ed), Central European Judges under the European Influence: The Transformative Power of the EU Revisited (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015) Laura Carlson (with B Nyström and Ö Edström) (eds), Globalization, Fragmentization and Employment Law: a Swedish Perspective (Uppsala: Iustus, 2015) Mark Freedland (with C Costello) (eds), Migrants at Work – Immigration and Vulnerability in Labour Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) Mark Freedland and Jeremias Prassl (eds), Viking, Laval and Beyond (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015) Geneviève Helleringer (with JS Bergé), Operating the Law in a Global Context (Cheltenham: E Elgar, forthcoming) Dorota Leczykiewicz and Stephen Weatherill (eds), The Images of the Consumer in EU Law: Legislation, Free Movement and Competition Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2016 forthcoming) Justine Pila (with RC Dreyfuss) (eds), Oxford Handbook of Intellectual Property Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016 in preparation) Justine Pila (with PLC Torremans), European Intellectual Property Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016 forthcoming) Justine Pila (with C Wadlow) (eds), Perspectives