Posted on 26 July 2018
Students from the annual summer school, organised by the Academy of European Law at the European University institute, visited the Historical Archives of the European Union on 9 July 2018.
Dieter Schlenker, HAEU director, gave an introductory talk about the HAEU and provided them with an overview of how archives function (deposits, archival treatment and description, access and consultation). Then he displayed and presented a number of unique archival documents related to the history of European law. At the end, the group visited the storage facilities.
The students viewed archival documents from various archival holdings including case files and the original decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as, files from the legal service of the European Commission. Additionally, they saw documents from private legal archives deposited at the HAEU from former EU high officials, renowned European lawyers and law scholars that played a role in European integration through law, such as Fernand Dehousse, Walter Much, Antonio Cassese and Mauro Cappelletti.
The visit to the archives is part of a two-week summer school programme in European Union Law by leading specialists in the area. This year’s programme of the summer school discussed, amongst others, current challenges facing the EU, such as the financial crisis, Brexit, migration and the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, and their impact on the EU legal system.