I am delighted about the publication of ‘Reforming the EU Treatise’ which was published directly as a result of the fifth KCL-Innsbruck Young European Law Scholars conference. It’s an amazing opportunity to showcase the work of early career researchers and academics within the field of European Union Law. ‘Reforming the EU Treaties’ is a timely exploration of the many issues that are inevitably thrown up whenever EU Treaty reform is placed back on the political agenda.
Dr Darren Harvey, Senior Lecturer in Law, The Dickson Poon School of Law.
27 February 2024
King's academic publishes book following Young European Law Scholars Conference
Dr Darren Harvey, Senior Lecturer at The Dickson Poon School of Law, has co-published ‘Reforming the EU Treaties, after continued involvement with the Young European Law Scholars Conference (YELS).
The Young European Law Scholars Conference (YELS), now in its sixth year, is a forum where young EU legal scholars have the chance to present their research to an audience of fellow EU law academics. The entirely student-run conference provides a key opportunity for young academics within the field of European Union Law to receive feedback from established EU law experts. Each panel on the conference is chaired by a leading EU lawyer who has read the submissions and provides expert feedback.
Dr Darren Harvey, Senior Lecturer in Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, first presented his own research at the 4th YELS conference in Zurich in 2021 and was then invited to co-organise the conference for the following year in 2022, where he and his peers decided on the theme of Reforming EU Treaties for the fifth conference. The 2022 conference was jointly organised by King’s and the University of Innsbruck. Following the conference, Dr Harvey and his colleagues from Innsbruck have co-edited the recently published book titled ‘Reforming the EU Treaties’ which consists of papers written by students who participated in the conference.
The book, written by young EU legal scholars, explores potential reforms to the EU treaties. Events over the last 15 years such as Brexit have given rise to considerations relating to amending and updating the Principal EU Treaties of the European Integration Project. Rather than advocating for major reforms, the authors propose making specific provisions and recommendations to the existing treaty frameworks. The book credits ‘The Conference on the Future of Europe’ as one of the reasons for publication, stating that ‘The Conference on the Future of Europe has arguably given renewed impetus to the process of fundamental Treaty reform in the not-too-distant future.’
Following the conference, Darren and his peers selected the best eight papers from the conference and were successful in securing a publishing contract with Beck Hart and Nomos. The book was published late last year in November.
Mark Konstantinidis, a PhD student and Visiting Lecturer at The Dickson Poon School of Law submitted a chapter in the book titled ‘What Elephant? The Principle of Autonomy in Article 21 TEU’ that was selected for publication.
My contribution is based on a paper I presented at the 5th Young European Law Scholars Conference, at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in June 2022. The book also features other contributions from the conference. It has been great to discuss proposals for 'Reforming the EU Treaties' with early-career researchers from across Europe, and to work with editors Darren Harvey, Madlen Karg, Janine Prantl, Clara Rauchegger and Bernadette Zelger. I hope that my contribution, as well as the others in the book, can prove helpful as discussions about treaty reform are already underway at the EU institutions and capitals.
Mark Konstantinidis, PhD Student and Visiting Lecturer, The Dickson Poon School of Law.
Reforming the EU Treaties is available online.
In this story
Senior Lecturer in Law (Education)
PhD Student