Bristol was one of the first Law Schools in the UK to teach EEC Law, offering courses on the subject in the mid-1970’s, shortly after the UK Accession. Today the School of Law has staff who teach and research across a wide range of specialist areas of European law and staff with expertise in areas of Commercial Law and International Law with a European dimension. European Law activity at Bristol goes beyond the EU and encompasses European human rights, private international law, comparative law and the national laws of European states. A number of leading publications in the European Law field are authored or edited by staff of the School. This expertise enables us to offer an LLM programme in European Law and units which can be studied as part of the Commercial Law and International Law LLM programmes as well. We are also able to offer research degree supervision across a broad spectrum of European topics.
The School organizes and hosts the biennial EU International Law Forum, a major event which brings together academics, practitioners and representatives from various governmental and international agencies in a round table discussion on matters at the interface of EU and international law. The proceedings of this Forum are published subsequently, in the form of a collection of papers edited by a member or members of the School staff. The next Forum will be held in 2009.
Most members of staff working in European Law are interested in issues within the field of EU constitutional and administrative law. Notably, however, Professor Panos Koutrakos has published widely in a number of areas. Phil Syrpis is concerned with questions of governance, in particular with the Open Method of Coordination, and has published articles on this and on subsidiarity. Nicholas Tsagourias has an interest in EU constitutional law and theory and in comparative international and European constitutional law and theory. He has recently edited, and contributed to, a book Transnational constitutionalism: international and European models (2006). Professor Achilles Skordas has written on the position of the EU in the international legal order and on the position of EU migration policy. Professor Julian Rivers has written on the ecclesiastical policy of the EU and is interested in religion in the EU as an aspect of citizenship.
Phil Syrpis has, during 2009-2010, launched a new research project investigating, in the internal market context, the relationship between Treaty interpretation by the Court of Justice and the interventions of the political institutions. A workshop will be held in March 2010 in Antwerp, and among the participants will be Nina Boeger, Panos Koutrakos, Ryan Murphy and Phil Syrpis. The intention is to be publish the workshop proceedings as an edited collection.
Professor Panos Koutrakos is a leading figure in EU external commercial relations scholarship and in the important and emerging field of the EU’s international relations and the common security and defence policy. He is the author of two major texts in these areas: Trade, Foreign Policy and Defence in EU Constitutional Law (2001) and EU International Relations Law (2006).
Staff of the School have a wide range of expertise in the field of EU social policy. Professor Tonia Novitz writes on various aspects of EU labour law. She is currently engaged in the comparative ‘FORMULA’ project, which is examining ‘free movement, labour market regulation and multilevel governance in the enlarged EU/EEA’ from a comparative perspective. Phil Syrpis is author of EU Intervention in Domestic Labour Law (2007). Nina Boeger publishes in the area of EU policy on public services, as does Professor Tony Prosser. Professor Charlotte Villiers is interested in European employment and labour law as part of her work on European Company Law and worker participation. Professor Achilles Skordas researches in the field of European migration policy.
Professor Charlotte Villiers researches and writes on Company Law, with a strong European dimension. This is reflected in her recent book Corporate Reporting and Company Law (2006), her earlier book European Company Law - Towards Democracy?(1998), and in a number of publications on European worker participation measures.
Members of the School have particular expertise in EU Competition Law and Regulation. Professor Brenda Sufrin is the co-author of the leading textbook Jones and Sufrin, EC Competition Law: Text, Cases and Materials (2nd edn, 2004) and is one of the General Editors and part author of the practitioner looseleaf Butterworths Competition Law. Professor Tony Prosser is an authority in the field of Regulation and the author of The Limits of Competition Law: Markets and Public Services (2005), and Nina Boeger is also engaged in research into EU policy on the delivery of public services.
Helen Norman is interested in the European aspects on intellectual property law, such as the harmonisation of intellectual property law, the effect of pan-Community intellectual property rights, the effect of ECJ and EPO jurisprudence on domestic intellectual property law, and comparative intellectual property law. She has a particular expertise in European aspects of trade mark law, on which she has published widely. Andrew Charlesworth researches in Information Technology and e-Commerce Law, both fields that have been heavily influenced by European Union legislation. He has particular expertise in the area of EU and comparative privacy and data protection law.
Professor Jonathan Hill is an authority on private international law and his writing has a large European element because of the importance of the European instruments on the jurisdiction, the recognition and enforcement of judgments and choice of law. He contributed to Dicey & Morris on the Conflict of Laws (13th edn, 2000 and supplements), is co-author of Clarkson & Hill, The Conflict of Laws (2006), and author of International Commercial Disputes in English Courts (2005) and Cross-Border Consumer Contracts (2008).
The work of Professor Steven Greer in European Human Rights is part of the School’s wide expertise in international human rights. Professor Greer’s research is multidisciplinary, and he has responsibility for the study of human rights across the Faculty of Social Science and Law. His newest publication will be a major contribution to human rights scholarship in the form of a book The European Convention on Human Rights: Achievements, Problems and Prospects (2006/2007). He has been a consultant to the Council of Europe on two projects concerning the application of the European Convention. Professor Achilles Skordas researches and publishes on European migration policies and this work contains a significant human rights dimension.
Nina Boeger, Eric Deescheemaeker, Professor Paula Giliker, Professor Julian Rivers and Professor Charlotte Villiers are all interested in European comparative law. Nina Boeger and Professor Rivers have particular interests in German law, and Professor Villiers in Spanish law. Eric Deescheemaeker is particularly in French law and also Roman law. Professor Giliker is currently working in the field of European contract law and comparative principles of European tort law and has a particular interest in France. Bristol is one of the few law schools in England in which Roman Law, the foundation-stone of the civil law systems, is still offered as an undergraduate option.