FIDE-Uniting Great Minds of European Law: 50 years of the International Federation for European Law

• Author: Julia Laffranque
• Position: Judge, European Court of Human Rights. Professor of European Law, University of Tartu. President of the Estonian Association for European Law and President of FIDE 2011-2012
• Pages: 173-181

Julia Laffranque

Judge, European Court of Human Rights

Professor of European Law, University of Tartu

President of the Estonian Association for European Law

and President of FIDE 2011–2012

FIDE — Uniting Great Minds

of European Law:

50 years of the International Federation for European Law

Many people might associate ‘FIDE’, f‌i rst and foremost, with the World Chess Federation (Fédération

Internationale des Échecs, known as FIDE from its French initials). Among the legal profession, how-

ever, ‘FIDE’ refers to the International Federation for European Law (Fédération Internationale pour le

Droit Européen). This has been the case for several decades already: FIDE is celebrating its 50th birth-

day in September 2011. To me, personally, this letter combination means even more: ‘F’ as in friends and

friendship, ‘I’ as in interest and inf‌l uence in European law, ‘D’ for dynamic development of ‘E’uropean law.

Or one could just think of FIDE as ‘Friends of Institutions and Development of the European Union and its

Law’!

FIDE— more than just an association

FIDE is not a regular not-for-prof‌i t organisation, nor is it an ordinary lawyers’ association. It is a federation

that involves traditions and rules of conduct; it is an institution that has become a symbol of sorts in the

f‌i eld of European law and has shaped a particular cultural area of European law.

Established in September 1961 in Brussels, where the f‌i rst FIDE congress also took place, FIDE is com-

mitted to research and development of European Union (hereinafter referred to as the EU) law and EU

institutions.

Although FIDE specialises more narrowly in studying the law of the (former) European Communities,

nowadays that of the European Union, that does not rule out dealing with European law generally, as the

name of the association suggests. European law means, among other things, the European law drafted

by the Council of Europe or the European Court of Human Rights as the latter interprets the European

Convention on Human Rights. The law of the European Union is often closely related to European law in

a broader sense, and increasingly so—for instance, the 2012 FIDE Congress is going to include a topic area

in which we plan to analyse the connections between the law of the European Union, Member States’ laws,

and the European Convention on Human Rights. It is clear that European law cannot be viewed separately

from the law of Member States, and many f‌i elds of study and FIDE Congress topics address precisely the

interpretation and application of European law in the context of Member States’ laws.

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JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL XVIII/2011