Summer School on Global Comparative Private Law

The  Summer School of European Private Law has been held in Salzburg every year since 2000. In the 25 years, thousands of students have been taught the principles of comparative law on the basis of a wide variety of legal systems.

The Summer School is part of the EU’s Jean Monnet Program and has repeatedly been financed with the help of European funds. The Summer School has received international recognition through repeated lectures by Supreme Court judges such as Justice Kennedy (formerly US Supreme Court), Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd (formerly Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales), Irmgard Griss (formerly President of the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice), numerous judges and a former advocate general of the European Court of Justice. EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn must be mentioned as a special friend and supporter of the Summer School.

The teachers come from almost every EU country as well as Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, USA, Canada, South Africa, China, Japan, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK, Russia and Switzerland. The lessons are therefore given exclusively by experts from the respective countries in either German, French or English.

Great importance is attached to comparative law sessions. Panels of experts provide an introduction to various current legal issues, such as law and languages, harmonization or “how to make a civil code”, as part of round table events.

Case solutions from various areas of law are discussed by teachers and students together in special workshops. The internationally recognised expertise of the teachers is also evident from the fact that many of them hold important academic positions. Pascal Pichonnaz, for example, a professor in Fribourg in Switzerland, is President of the European Law Institute (ELI).

The Salzburg Summer School with its special didactic model and the on-site presence of such a large and diverse number of teachers and students is unique and world-leading. There is no other programme with such depth and lasting impact, which can also be seen in the active alumni association.

The desire for scientific co-operation arose from the experience in teaching at the Summer School, and so the Academy for European Private Law (Akademie für europäisches Privatrecht) was founded by the Summer School professors. This is a scholarly group that meets once a year during the Summer School and debates a current topic of law and society. In recent years, issues such as migration and civil rights, tax law, Montesquieu and the modern constitutions, and animal rights have been discussed. The Academy has commented on questions of codification, most recently on the reforms of the civil codes in France and Belgium. Important research has been published in the Academy book series, and another volume on the subject of Emperor Justinian’s legislation will be published in the coming year.

To apply with the Center for Global Law: https://direitorio.fgv.br/noticia/centro-de-direito-global-da-fgv-direito-rio-seleciona-alunos-para-o-curso-de-verao-na-0

More information about the course: https://www.plus.ac.at/privatrecht/studium/summer-school-european-private-law/