The Maastricht Journal at Twenty
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1302000301 |
| Published date | 01 September 2013 |
| Date | 01 September 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
334 20 MJ 3 (2013)
EDITORIAL
The Ma astricht Journa l aT Twen Ty
E M and J S*
is special issue of t he Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law celebrat es
the 20th anniversa ry of its founding. When the Maastricht Journal was established in
1994 it was one of the rst journals de voted to the emerging ius commune Europaeum.
ere is no doubt that at that time there was a lready a considerable number of journals
devoted to either European law or comparative law, but they al l lacked the focus on
the common roots and principles upon which t he European legal systems are based.
e Maastricht Journal ai med to ll this gap. e editorial board is proud to say that in
hindsight this ha s proved to be a highly visionar y choice. In 1994 one could not foresee
how topical think ing about the common law of Europe would become. e Journal has
followed this development closely and has oered a forum for both endorsement and
critique of the Europeani zation of law. Today the Maastricht Journal is no longer the
only journal devoted to the st udy of the common law of Europe. But it is still unique in its
focus on both European law and t he Europeanization of substanti ve elds such as private
law, constitutional law, criminal law, environmenta l law, and so on.
e 20th anniversar y of the Journal calls for something special. It is a happy
coincidence that 2013 is also the year i n which the entry into force of the Maastricht
Treaty on European Union is celebrated. is Treaty has intensied the European
integration process. Since t hen, the substantive scope of European Union law has
expanded even fur ther, while the institutional mechanisms supporting this proce ss
were being modernized. is double expansion and modernization process is so broad
and complex that it has become almost i mpossible for a single and isolated observer to
keep an accurate overv iew of the essential characterist ics of the EU legal order. e20th
anniversar y seemed like an excel lent occasion to constitute a platform for bringing
together the knowledge of exper ts in selected sub-disciplines of EU substant ive law and
asking them to ex plore their own eld of expertise in light of a joint set of research
questions. ese questions focus on t he general dynamics of t heir discipline so as to
critically reec t on the Europeanization process at the core of the Journa l’s scope.
True to the Journal’s mission from the very beginning, the present issue is thus an
exercise at the intersection of Europea n law and the substantive elds. From the Europe an
* Maastricht Uni versity.
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