The Gazette 1976

GAZETTE

SEPTEMBER 1976

COUNCIL OF EUROPE

FOURTH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF LAW

FACULTIES

Strasbourg, 8 October 1976

CONCLUS I ONS

Introduction

1. The Fourth European Conference of Law Facul-

ties, arranged by the Council of Europe and having as

its theme : "The contribution of comparative law to

teaching, research and law reform" was held at the

headquarters of the Council of Europe from 6 to 8

October 1976.

2. On the proposal of the Organising Committee,

the conference elected as its Chairman Professor A. G.

Chloros (London), and as its Vice-Chairmen Professors

Ch Domonice (Geneva), R. Nerson (Lyons III), S.

Jorgensen (Aarhus) and Mr. A. Huss, Honorary Attorney

General (Luxembourg).

3. Those participating in the conference included

teachers and research workers in legal sciences

attached to law faculties or to research centres and

institutes, lawyers with experience of legislative work

appointed to represent member countries of the Council

of Europe, and observers sent by Finland, the Holy See,

Spain, the United States and certain European govern-

mental and non-governmental organisations.

4. The subjects chosen within the framework of the

conference theme were considered by three committees,

namely :

Committee

: General teaching (1st cycle). Chair-

man : Professor R. Sacco (Turin).

Committee B

: Specialised teaching and research (at

the universities and at autonomous institutes). Chair-

man : Professor C. A. Colliard (Paris).

Committee

: Law reform. Chairman : Mr. C.

Tornaritis, Attorney General (Nicosia).

5. The conference expressed its gratitude to the

Council of Europe for offering it an opportunity to

discuss those problems;

Expressed its gratification at the extremely fruitful

exchanges of view which had taken place on those

subjects in the aforementioned committees;

Conveyed to the Committee of Ministers of the

Council of Europe the following conclusions at which

it arrived as a result of its work;

Recommended that the competent bodies of the

Council of Europe should

1. authorise the Secretary General of the Council of

Europe to publish the proceedings of the conference

and communicate them to the governments of member

States with a request that they keep him informed of

the follow-up action taken;

2. convene a 5th conference in due course.

General teaching (1st cycle)

1. The Committee, being unanimous in its concern

to promote the teaching of Comparative Law and the

knowledge of foreign law in the European universities.

Considers that the teaching of Comparative Law, in

the context of economic and social relations in the con-

temporary world, holds an obvious twofold interest:

(1) Knowledge of Comparative Law is an instrument

of inestimable value to the student in the fields of general

culture and legal training, since it enables him to gain

an accurate understanding of his own national law and

of European and international legal relations;

(2) The study of rnmnarative law makes it possible to

acquire the knowledge that is essential to the exercise

of professional activities in both the public and the

private sectors.

.. With these aims in mind, the Committee unan-

imously proposes the following measures :

Convinced that the understanding of foreign legal

texts is essential to the teaching of comparative law.

Expresses the wish that, on the one hand, the student

should already have acquired the basic knowledge

necessary to such understanding through his secondary

education and, on the other hand, that the Faculties

should take steps calculated to develop knowledge of

one or more foreign languages, if possible from the

angle of legal terminology.

3. The Committee recommends the compulsory

organisation of an introductory course in comparative

law, leading to a terminal examination and including

an outline of the major legal systems and initiation into

comparative methods, as well as setting up a committee

of experts whose task it would be to prepare a model

syllabus for this course.

4. The Committee considers that, after this general

introduction, knowledge of comparative law should be

developed according to the particular fields of interest

of each Faculty : teaching could be provided both in

the form of specific instruction (by geographical sector,

or by subject in the field of both private and public

law) or in that of incorporating a comparative approach

in the general teaching of different subjects (including

historical subjects).

5. Encouraging the study of Comparative Law

involves an increase in teaching staff. With this in view,

the Committee would first recall the need to enhance the

mobility of teaching staff (university professors and

lecturers) between one country and another, and hopes

that all the necessary steps may be taken to facilitate

such exchanges.

The same mobility must likewise be guaranteed to

students, in particular through the certification of studies

carried out in a foreign university and leading to a

terminal examination.

It considers that this twofold aim will be furthered

by the establishment of effective twinning arrangements

between foreign universities.

Specialised teaching and research

Committee B's brief was to consider specialised

teaching and research in the light of the reports sub-

mitted by Professors G Giugni and S. Keyman.

During the discussion the following conclusions

emerged.

1. The Committee observed first of all how im-

portant it was that specialised university bodies should

circulate each other with information about themselves.

It should also be made easier to gain information

concerning national texts of legal significance.

The help which the Council of Europe could provide

in this respect would be particularly valuable.

The existence of the Newsletter on legislative activities

in the member States should not be forgotten. It pro-

vides a summary of legislative developments in the

various Council of Europe member States and its cir-

culation should be encouraged.

Similarly, other documents of the same type which

were produced by the Council of Europe — such as

translations of legal texts — should be made available

to interested bodies.

2. The problems of methods were discussed exten-

sively. The view was expressed that, generally speaking,

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