Mission Statement

The objective of the Leuven Centre for a Common Law of Europe (Leuven CCLE) is to focus research efforts of the Faculty of Law of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) on legal developments that are common to the whole of Europe. A tradition of forty years of research in the field of comparative and European Community law serves as an excellent starting point for the activities of Leuven CCLE.

The area's of interest are

 the law of the European Union and developments in European human rights and humanitarian law (ECHR law),

 the national legal systems of the European countries in a comparative context and in their interaction with European Union law and

 the interplay of European (Union) law with international law.

The Leuven CCLE research method consists in bridging the classical dividing lines between legal disciplines and in engaging in comparative and cross-disciplinary legal research, while at the same time embedding legal scholarship in broader social, economic, cultural and political contexts. Studies will not only focus on private law, but also on public law and areas of the law situated at the boundaries of its classical branches.

The first and foremost goal of Leuven CCLE is to promote fundamental legal research on the interaction between the aforementioned different fields and methods, thereby thoroughly analysing bottom-up as well as top-down movements. This approach is necessary in order to determine to what extent the building bricks of national, European and international law can be used to promote a common legal construction for Europe.

Leuven CCLE approaches the law not as a rule set in stone, but as a living and dynamic process. The core of the process is the interaction between different legal orders in Europe: between Community and national law, between separate national legal systems and between European and international law. As the composite of legal rules grows ever more complex, the question of legitimacy of legal rules is perceived as a major subject of research.

The Leuven CCLE approach to scholarship and research is rooted in the firm conviction, indicated by forty years of comparative analysis, that it will become more and more apparent that legal systems which prima facie may look very different are built around common principles that in Europe constitute a ius commune or a common law of Europe.

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