The archives of the Court of Justice were opened in the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) at the European University Institute in December 2015. The Court of Justice in the Archives Project builds on the recent interesting historical and sociological turns in EU law and Court of Justice-focused scholarship, with the aim of bringing these archives to life.

The archive consists of dossiers de procédure for every case decided by the Court of Justice. They are released with a 30-year time limit and each consists of hundreds, sometimes thousands of pages of court material which have never before been accessible to researchers.

Through analysis of a selection of cases this project will demonstrate how and why the archives of the Court of Justice are worthy of the attention of a wide range of scholars from linked disciplines.

We invite you to read about the lawyers, sociologists, historians and archivists involved in this project and to learn more about why and how we plan to research the correspondence, legal opinions, testimonies, interim decisions and various pieces of evidence that the archive holds.

Click on the photos and documents that you will find on this website to learn more and follow us as we investigate the Court of Justice in the archives…

Events

During this webinar, Amedeo Arena, Associate Professor of European Union Law at the University of Naples “Federico II” School of Law and visiting fellow at the Alcide de Gasperi Research Centre (EUI), will present his research on the four Italian lawyers who paved the way for ‘Europe’s Marbury v Madison’. Who were these four lawyers? What were their backgrounds? What were their motives? Seeking to elucidate some still obscure aspects of the ‘ruling that enlightened Europe’, Prof. Arena will discuss together with Morten Rasmussen, Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, and Bruno De Witte, professor of European Union law at Maastricht University and part-time professor at the EUI.

This webinar, organised by EU Law Live in collaboration with members of the ‘Court of Justice in the Archives’ project team, brought together leading experts to focus on different aspects of EU legal history and looked at new approaches to analysing and understanding EU Law through archival analysis.

You can watch the video of the webinar here.

This workshop focused on the analyses of the archival material prepared by those working in the project. We examined how to approach the Court of Justice archival material in the study of CJEU cases, addressing two core questions. How can we best demonstrate and evaluate the potential of the Court of Justice archives from a range of disciplinary perspectives? How can we convey and consider the specificities of this archival holding?

  • Discussion Seminar with Antoine Vauchez, January 2020

During this seminar, Antoine Vauchez discussed some of the working papers wrote by the Project researchers.

  • Discussion Seminar with Morten Rasmussen, October 2019

During this seminar, Morten Rasmussen discussed some of the working papers wrote by the Project researchers.

This Master Class brought together some members of the Project Board and the team of Project researchers to discuss the different disciplinary approaches to historical research on the Court of Justice.

 

 

Pictures of the Court of Justice in session in the early 1970s. From left to right in the first picture: AG Joseph Gand, AG Karl Roemer, Judge Walter Strauss, Judge Andreas Matthias Donner, Judge Riccardo Monaco and President of the Court Robert Lecourt. © European Communities 1970 / © European Communities 1973, Photo Jean-Louis Debaize