EU Law
We have a proud history of EU law research at LSE. The first major English language textbook was written by an LSE academic (Trevor Hartley), a tradition since continued by Damian Chalmers and Floris de Witte. We have a vibrant community composed of a large group of scholars, LLB and LLM course options, seminars and public events, and opportunities for PhD and post-graduate research.
Our interest in EU law extends beyond analysing legislation and cases. LSE Law School’s interdisciplinary perspective means that our research makes use of innovative research methods such as empirical data, legal geography, political theory and law & economics in order to analyse the social, political and economic assumptions and implications of EU regulation and EU law.
Within the field of EU law, members of our group are pioneers in fields such as competition law, data protection, empirical legal studies, internal market law, EU sports law, citizenship law, environmental law, and legal geography. We have published extensively in these areas.
Comparative Law and Private International Law
Comparative Law and Private International Law (also known as the Conflict of Laws) have distinguished histories at the LSE, both going back to professor Sir Otto Kahn-Freund. Kahn-Freund was already a labour-court judge in Weimar-era Germany when he came to the LSE as an LLM-student in 1933, just after the Nazi’s had dismissed him. At the LSE he was first a lecturer and then professor, until 1964 when he became professor of Comparative Law at Oxford. Kahn-Freund’s one-time student Trevor Hartley took on teaching Conflict of Laws at the Law School, continuing the pioneering use of a comparative approach to conflicts problems. Over the past decades many LSE Law School faculty members have made distinguished contributions to the comparative study of law and legal institutions, often using interdisciplinary perspectives. Notable contributions include work by the late Simon Roberts, on the cultural logic of disputes among the Tswana of southern Africa; by Gunther Teubner, on ‘good faith’ as a ‘legal irritant’ in English law; and by Nicola Lacey, on the comparative political economy of punishment.
Environmental law
Environmental law is a vital component of the research expertise of the LSE Law School. We have a strong presence in the study of environmental law and regulation within and beyond the level of the state, and our research interests encompass subjects ranging from climate change law, biodiversity protection and transnational pollution disputes to ESG and hazardous substances control.
We have a core team of four faculty members and fellows in environmental/climate law. In addition to our scholarly output, our contributions to the discipline are varied. Veerle Heyvaert is one of two Founding Editors of Transnational Environmental Law, a peer-reviewed journal of international standing, and co-authors a leading textbook on European environmental law (CUP 2017). Stephen Humphreys was a Lead Author for the IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C and Academic Advisor to the International Bar Association’s Task Force on Climate Justice and Human Rights. Both are associate members of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Moreover, the LSE Law School’s strength in environmental law extends far beyond the core team, as many of its faculty investigate environmental and climate-related aspects of IP law, EU law, trade and investment law, tax law, corporate governance and finance.
History of Law in Europe
History is critical to our understanding of what today we call Europe and the invention of law on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea more than 2000 years ago has played a major role in bringing about both that history and that understanding. Legal-historical research has a distinguished tradition in the Law School – ranging from Professor Stroud Francis Charles (Toby) Milsom to Professor Michael Lobban – and many LSE academics in the Law School continue to have a keen interest in it, in all of its different declinations.
Browse these pages to become more familiar with our research and our researchers, or look for possibilities to get involved.