ABOUT THE NETWORK
Welcome!
The European Union Legal Historians Network is designed to foster scholarship and academic exchange for historians, lawyers, social scientists, and others who are working on the history of European law, the European Court of Justice, and related topics.
Since 2020 the Network has hosted a series of online workshops where scholars can present their work in progress to the community of researchers active in this area.
We envisage a continuing series of similar workshops going forward, to offer feedback and critique on draft research, as well as discussions about how to build up this scholarly community, raise the profile of the historical study of European law, and incorporate new research in teaching and public outreach.
Please add your name to our mailing list to be kept informed of future events organised by the Network.
Coordinators
Bill Davies, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Department Chair, Justice Law & Criminology
Department of Justice, Law, and Criminology at American University
Dr. Davies is approaching the study of the European Union legal system from a fresh perspective by critically examining the development of the constitutional practice of law in the EU from a historical perspective. Dr. Davies has traveled extensively to uncover the primary documents that will contribute to a fresh and empirically accurate narrative of the emergence of the European constitutional system and to answer the question of how the controversial consolidation of power at the European level has been received in the EU’s member states. Dr. Davies recently published a monograph on the German reception of European law. Germany’s relationship with the European Court of Justice has been fraught with challenges and it is Germany’s reactions to the decisions of the court that largely have, and will, determine its future.
William Phelan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Political Science and Jean Monnet Chair at Trinity College Dublin
William Phelan is an associate professor of political science at Trinity College Dublin and Jean Monnet Chair in EU Politics and Law.
Phelan's first book "In Place of Inter-State Retaliation: The European Union's Rejection of WTO-style Trade Sanctions and Trade Remedies" uses the comparative method to offer an explanation of the role of the European Court of Justice in the European legal order, and was published in 2015 by Oxford University Press. It was awarded the 2016 Brian Farrell Book Prize by the Political Science Association of Ireland. His second book "Great Judgments of the European Court of Justice: Rethinking the Landmark Decisions in the Foundational Period" offers a new understanding of the Court's early cases, drawing on the writings and speeches of French ECJ judge and President of the Court 1967-1976, Robert Lecourt. Great Judgments was included in "10 Good Reads" for 2020 by the European Journal of International Law and in “Legal Books of the Year 2021” [Juristische Bücher des Jahres], selected by the leading German law journal, JuristenZeitung. Phelan is continuing his research into judge Robert Lecourt as well as issues of research design in the study of European law.
