Joseph H. H. Weiler

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Joseph Halevi Horowitz Weiler (b. 1951 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is Joseph Straus Professor of Law and European Union Jean Monnet Chair at New York University Law School. He is an expert on European Union Law and International Law. One of the few to hold the privileged Diploma from the Hague Academy of International Law, Weiler is the author of seminal works relating to the sui generis character of the European Union. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Weiler worked at the European University Institute Florence (EUI) and co-founded the EUI Academy of European Law. He also was a Professor at Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, and was Manley O Hudson Professor of Law and European Union Jean Monnet Chair at Harvard Law School.

Weiler's contribution to the legal theory of European integration has been immense, writing prolifically on virtually all areas of EU law (internal market, external relations, social law, and above all, institutional law). He is a particular authority on the role of the European Court of Justice. His biting commentary on the Maastricht decision of the German Constitutional Court and its "volk-ish"-based theory was contrasted with Weiler's own "double-demos" theory, arguing for the co-existence of a European as well as a national demos, based on shared values rather than ethnic affiliations.

Weiler is one of the few EU law scholars to have an influence on EU policy-making through his writings and speeches. He transcends the borders of the technical and has a real vision for the EU. He was a member of the Groupe des Sages advising the European Commission on the Amsterdam Treaty and advised the European Parliament's Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms.

Although Weiler's reputation was made primarily in the area of EU law, his interests have developed in the area of International Trade Law. He was a WTO Panel Member and is one of the Directors of the Academy of International Trade Law, Institute of European Studies of Macau.

Weiler's distinctions at an unusually early age - honorary doctorates from the University of London and Sussex University and Honorary Chairs at the University of Copenhagen, University College London and Macao - testify to his global influence as do his institutional affiliations to 13 top-ranking Universities throughout the world. Weiler founded the European Law Journal, the European Journal of International Law and the World Trade Review. He is a member of the scientific boards of 14 academic journals devoted to European or international law.

Weiler's scholarship has given rise to groups of scholars throughout the EU and the rest of the world who can be described as being part of his School. He is an immensely brilliant lecturer, a charismatic individual and attracts to whichever University in which he is based, large numbers of selected postgraduate students as well as visiting academics and judges.

Weiler's appeal is as an original thinker - his debates with scholars such as Jürgen Habermas are legendary. He is as much a philosopher as a lawyer, and has an extraordinary encyclopedic knowledge of many disciplines, whose frontiers he crosses with ease. He has to a large extent, without losing sight of academic rigor, decoupled himself from the straitjacket of law. He embraced the notion of law as policy-making, and then devised his own philosophy based essentially on a holistic vision of society, the nation state, and "non-unitary actors" in public international law, such as international organizations.

His appeal also lies in the extraordinary humanity displayed in his writings. His concern for the individual in the legal order is omnipresent, though he is notorious for not reflecting this noble intellectual character in his relationships with his students.

At the age of 56, he is considered to be one of the intellectual giants globally in European and International law. His profound intellectual influence on policy-makers and judges is demonstrated in their public reaction to his writings and he is one of the few lawyers who can genuinely be said to express himself in ways which stimulate and inspire European and other leaders. He is above all, a practical and visionary idealist.