Since the foundation of LSE, researchers and students in many disciplines have made comparisons between Britain and its neighbours and have analysed relations between European states in terms of law, politics, economics and social structures.
Geoffrey Goodwin, Trevor Hartley, James Joll, Leonard Schapiro, Peter Wiles, Gordon Smith, Bill Pickles, Alan Milward and Vincent Wright were amongst the pioneers in the teaching and research on Europe at LSE.
The Institute currently has a Fellow of the British Academy; a Marie Curie Fellow, an Academician of the Learned Society for Social Sciences; a Fellow of the European Economic Association, the Chair of the European Economic History Association and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs . Editors or former editors of the following journals teach on programmes managed by it: Journal of Common Market Studies, European Law Review; European Law Journal; European Union Politics; West European Politics.
The Institute also welcomes distinguished visitors from around the world. In recent years it has had visiting professors or fellows from Arena, Harvard, Potsdam, NYU, Tufts as well as from distinguished think-tanks such as the Centre for European Policy Studies and Breughel.