European Law Research

The field of European law has been one of the key areas of research for the topic of Law at Örebro university ever since the research activities started in 2003-2004. As every lawyer knows, European law and in particular EU law is a very huge topic, which ranges from constitutional law to most other areas of law, including competition law, tax law, criminal law, asylum law, environmental law and general human rights issues. Within the latter field, the book Human Rights in Contemporary European law (eds. J. Nergelius/E. Kristoffersson, Hart, Oxford 223 pages) that was published in 2014 may be mentioned here. As well as some previous book anthologies (Nordic and other European Constitutional Traditions, Brill, Leiden 2006, 176 pages, and New Directions in Comparative Law, Edward Elgar, London 2010, 304 pages) it is based on a conference held in Örebro (in 2011). Also a number of other books and articles have been published by current or former Örebro scholars such as Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt, Laura Ervo, Eleonor Kristoffersson, Joakim Nergelius, Annina Persson, Filippo Valguarnera and Jacob Öberg. Here, also the relationship between EU law and topics such as constitutional law, criminal law, tax and also business law at the national level, within Sweden and other EU states, has been given much attention.

Given the diversity of European law research, it is difficult to set any specific scientific targets in this field except to continue to study and publish works of high scientific quality, having versatility in mind. Concerning the currently running scientific projects, it may be mentioned that an application for support to a huge, multi-disciplinary project aiming at studying electricity law throughout Europe has been launched in early 2015, together with colleagues from the universities in Karlstad and Linköping. Should the application come through, it would be the greatest joint scientific project, involving the greatest number of scholars, that has been launched in law in Örebro so far. While waiting for that, it should be mentioned that the important project managed by Eleonor Kristoffersson concerning secrecy in tax administration(s) also has important comparative and European legal dimensions (see e.g. the book Tax Secrecy and Tax Transparency – The Relevance of Confidentiality in Tax Law, Part 1-2, Peter Lang Academic Research, Frankfurt am Main, 2013). The same is true for quite a few of the on-going doctoral projects.