General Assembly of the European Law Institute in Brussels

 

The general meeting was held at the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and Arts in the presence of more than two hundred participants from Europe and Canada. European institutions were well represented: the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. Representatives of the legal professions at European level (judges, notaries and lawyers) met those of many universities, reflecting the great scientific interest for the work of ELI.
After the welcoming words of Sir Francis Jacobs, president of ELI, Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson, vice president of ELI, presented the report of the executive committee of the organization.
The General Assembly also voted its budget. Several reports on the activities of ELI were made by members of the relevant committees.

The European Law Institute (ELI) is an independent non-profit organisation created in 2011 established to initiate, conduct and facilitate research, make recommendations and provide practical guidance in the field of European legal development. Building on the wealth of diverse legal traditions, its mission is the quest for better law-making in Europe and the enhancement of European legal integration. By its endeavours, ELI seeks to contribute to the formation of a more vigorous European legal community, integrating the achievements of the various legal cultures, endorsing the value of comparative knowledge, and taking a genuinely pan-European perspective. As such its work covers all branches of the law: substantive and procedural; private and public.

Among ELI's core tasks are:
-    to evaluate and stimulate the development of EU law, legal policy, and practice, and in particular make proposals for the further development of the acquis and for the enhancement of EU law implementation by the Member States;
-    to identify and analyse legal developments in areas within the competence of Member States which are relevant at the EU level;
-    to study EU approaches regarding international law and enhance the role EU law could play globally, for instance in drafting international instruments or model rules;
-    to conduct and facilitate pan-European research, in particular to draft, evaluate or improve principles and rules which are common to the European legal systems; and
-    to provide a forum, for discussion and cooperation, of jurists irrespective of their vocation or occupation, inter alia academics, judges, lawyers and other legal professionals, who take an active interest in European legal development and together represent a broad range of legal traditions.