The Humboldt-Universität was founded just over 150 years ago, and its roll of honour includes luminaries such as Max Planck, Albert Einstein, von Savigny and Hegel. Since von Savigny’s era (1779 - 1861), it has been the undisputed leading law school in Germany. Today, the university has an intensely international and interdisciplinary bias. Its opinions, in part due to its location, are often sought by the German legislature and on the European level as well. Wilhelm von Humboldt and Johann Gottlieb Fichte founded the modern university here in Berlin: the ideal of unity of research and teaching and the idea of an education that encourages the scholar to develop his full potential rather than simply furnishing information. Humboldt University’s law faculty sees itself in this tradition and is therefore also led by internationality and interdisciplinarity. It is home to the leading German textbooks and commentaries on Business Regulation (law of Partnerships and Companies, Company Law, European Company Law, Capital Markets Law), on Banking and Financial Law (Banking Law, Securities Regulation), on European Law (European Contract Law, European Company Law and European Constitutional Law, among others) as well as on aspects of Public Law (Environmental Law, Comparative Constitutional Law and others). A special emphasis at Humboldt’s law faculty is placed on Contract Law. Very few research institutions cover this field of law from the dogmatic side, the interdisciplinary theory to European and international law as extensively as it is done here.
The Université Paris 2 (Panthéon- Assas) is by far the largest law school in France and traditionally is the hub of French legal science. With about 100 professors, the law school offers an incomparable range of courses in both national and international law. It traditionally acts as opinion leader with questions concerning the evolution of law faculties and their teaching in France. The Association Henri Capitant, easily the largest national and international legal research organisation in the whole of Europe, is also based here. Together with the law faculty of the other Parisian partner, Université Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne), it is home to the elite of the French legal profession.
The classical college in London is King’s College. It rivals University College London (UCL) and London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) as leading colleges in the British capital. King’s College is the largest of the three, sitting right on river Thames. With more than 50 professors it covers every field of law extensively. A special emphasis is placed on international aspects and Business Regulation. It is home to the editors of Chitty on Contracts, the foremost work on the law of contract. The top lecturers in Economic Law and the law on Competition can be found here as well. A second partner from the United Kingdom might join the European Law School Network soon: the famous interdisciplinary London School of Economics (LSE).