The European Union will be on trial at the School's annual Law on Trial 2016

01 June 2016

One week before the UK decides on its future in Europe, the European Union will be on trial at the School of Law’s annual week-long programme of free-to-attend public lectures and panel discussions.

The annual showcase will run from Monday 13 to Friday 17 June 2016 and will bring together academic staff, recognised internationally as authorities in their field.

The European Union is reeling and talk of ‘Brexit’ grips the UK. Beyond this island, however, the Union is being questioned as never before.

Financial crisis, sovereign debt crisis, the migration crisis, and ‘Grexit’ have all challenged the gentle and seemingly unyielding process of European integration. Is the dream over? Is the notion of an ‘ever closer Union’ between the peoples of Europe an outdated idea?

This year's Law on Trial will investigate these issues.

What are the reasons for and the consequences of the various crises which Europe is now struggling to master?
Will we see ‘more Europe’ as core European states within the Eurozone intensify their co-operation and integration in order to sustain the Euro?
Are migration pressures and concerns about sovereignty encouraging a central power within the Union, giving rise to an increasingly fractured series of European unions?

Only one thing is clear. Whichever way the UK votes on the 23rd June, the European Union of 2020 will be very different from the Europe imagined in the 2000s.

Blog posts from Law on Trial 2016 speakers:

School of Law PhD Student and chair of Thursday's event, Daniele D'Alvia: Can the EU Regulate a Financial Crisis?
Professor Erik Oddvar Eriksen, speaking at Friday's event: Brexit – is it even possible?

The event programme for Law on Trial 2016 (all events start at 6.30PM):

Monday 13 June 2016. Europe at the Crossroads: Change as Crisis?

In association with B Birkbeck.
Speaker: Professor Michelle Everson
Michelle Everson has been teaching European law at Birkbeck School of Law since 2001. Prior to that she worked and taught in Germany and Italy and has advised various European Institutions since the 1990s. In this talk, she will seek to explain why, after historical periods of seamless change, the European Union now finds itself in crisis. She will argue that crisis within the EU is a feature of a wider global crisis of political, economic and cultural confidence.
Location: MAL 421, Birkbeck Main Building - Malet St, WC1E 7HX

Tuesday 14 June 2016. Brexit: Should the UK leave the EU?

In association with ELSA (European Law Students Association).
Speakers: Professor Justin Frosini; Professor Christopher Lord; Professor Albert Weale; Dr Angela Ward; Dr Roch Dunin-Wąsowicz.
This event brings together academic expertise on the position of nations who are ‘on the edges’ of the European Union, on the view of Brexit from abroad, on the longer history of a troubled relationship between the UK and Europe, as well as on the political context of the current referendum. Is Brexit a sensible strategy for change within the EU, or a fatal (for the UK and the EU) distraction?
The event will be followed by a reception. All are welcome.
Location: MAL B34, Birkbeck Main Building.

Wednesday 15 June 2016. Europe's Migration Crisis.

Chair: Dr Stewart Motha. Speakers: Dr Nadine El-Enany; Fotis Vergis; Dr Eva Nanopoulus; Dr Marko Milenkovic.
This event places the crisis of migration within the EU within a broader context of economic and political upheaval within the member states and aspirant member states of the European Union, as well as within countries far beyond the EU. The current migration crisis within the EU is both a global phenomenon and a further cause of doubt and concern about the political, social and cultural responses of the EU to the drawing of the boundaries of the Union. Does the EU have the capacity to master crisis?
This panel of young critical European lawyers will explore this multi-faceted crisis from the varying national perspectives of the candidate countries of the Balkans, Greece, Germany and the UK.
Location: MAL B36, Birkbeck Main Building.

Thursday 16 June 2016. Can the EU Regulate a Financial Crisis?

In association with The Academic Research Network on the Agentification of EU Executive Governance (TARN).
Chair: Daniele D’Alvia. Speakers: Professor Ellen Vos; Dr Matthias Goldmann; Patrick Devine; Professor Michelle Everson.
This event will look, first, at the general development of regulation within the EU as a paradigm of risk-based regulation, dependent upon the integration of expertise into policy-making. Thereafter, the debate will move to the global problems of financial regulation and risk, with contributions on EU and global financial regulation and on the phenomenon of independent governance of financial risks The evening is dedicated to asking whether financial crisis is over, or ever can be over.
This event is followed by a reception hosted by TARN.
Location: MAL 421, Birkbeck Main Building.

Friday 17 June 2016. The EU at the Crossroads: Can Europe Build Itself a Future?

Chair: Christian Joerges. Speakers: Professor Erik Oddvar Eriksen; Professor John Ryan; Manuela Zechner; Gracia Trujillo Barbadillo.
What is the future for the EU?
What is the future for Europe? Using a mix of cultural, philosophical and political approaches, this evening will seek to answer the question of quo vadis Europa. Can the European project be saved? Which are the cultural ties upon which the EU can build? Can we identify new forms of post-statal political organisation, in order to secure civility in the disorganised world beyond state sovereignty.
Will the central forces of crisis undermine the European project in its entirety? Are there particular steps that can be taken to overcome current concerns, for example the ongoing problem of democratic deficit? What roles can law and legal theory play in guiding the European Union into the future
This event starts with a screening of Manuela Zechnar's film at 5.30PM ‘Remembering Europe: a journey into the future of crisis’ (attendance optional).
Location: MAL B35 in Birkbeck Main Building (number 1 on this map: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/downloads/centrallondon.pdf)

Past Law on Trial Events

Please email law-events@bbk.ac.uk with enquiries.

Further information: