Academy of European Law (ERA) - EJTN

The Academy of European Law began work in Trier in March 1992.

Its genesis was associated with the rapid pace of European integration during the late 1980s and 1990s. With the Single European Act in 1986 and the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the scope of European legislation became wider than ever before.

It was clear that lawyers, judges and other legal practitioners at all levels and in almost all fields of law would need regular training and a forum for debate in order to keep up-to-date with the latest developments.

In 1990 the European Parliament recommended that the Commission invest in a centre for the continuing education of lawyers in order to improve the application of European law.

Meanwhile, Peter Caesar, the Minister of Justice of the German Land of Rhineland-Palatinate, together with Horst Langes and Willi Rothley, Members of the European Parliament from the same region, were drawing up proposals for an Academy of European Law to be established in Trier.

In 1991, the European Parliament endorsed these proposals in a report drafted by the Dutch MEP James Janssen van Raay.