Submitted Abstract
The objective of the activity was to involve a wide-ranging audience (academics, practitioners, young researchers, policy makers) in interactive lectures delivered by renowned scholars in legal, political economy or international relations disciplines. The 5 lectures critically assessed the role of the European Union as a global international actor in tackling challenges in a context of global governance. Emphasis has been put on current controversial issues, such as global financial regulation, human rights protection, energy security.This second Lecture Series has been built on the success of the lectures funded by the FNR (December 2013-November 2014) in the same field. The lectures combined theoretical perspectives and empirical insights and involved as discussants lawyers, political scientists, economists and sociologists. Two lectures related to human rights protection were preceded by a workshop. During the workshops, post-doc researchers and PhD candidates debated the scientific material provided in advance under the coordination of the speakers of the lectures and of prof. Neframi. The workshop participants briefly presented the results of such a debate at the end of the lecture, and also animated the debate addressing questions to the speakers. After each lecture, informal discussions among speakers and participants continued during a cocktail and dinner. The activity contributed to the dissemination of research results and stimulated research, teaching and reflection in the field of the external action of the European Union. The Lecture Series reinforced the visibility of the teaching and research activities of the University of Luxembourg, promoted the exchange of ideas and research results through inter academic discussions and actively involved members of the Court of Justice of the European Union and of European institutions and organs.The material related to the lecture series is available on-line on the University of Luxembourg’s web site (http://wwwen.uni.lu/recherche/fdef/lecture_series). The web site is constantly updated as soon as further material is made available, such as abstracts of the lectures, biography of the speakers, articles or/and power point presentations of the speakers, comments of the discussants and short commentaries of the participants in the workshops.Besides the web site, other means were used to disseminate the programme of the event, such as the mailing list of the University of Luxembourg, Max Planck Institute, CVCE, Fondation du Mérite européen, European Commission, European Council, Court of Justice of the European Union, EFTA Court, European Law Institute,Academy of European Law, CEDECE, and European Public Law Organization. Moreover, the programme was sent to several European Universities and networks as well as advertised in European Law Journals.