Research

One of the main activities of the European Faculty of Law is research in various fields of law. Many professors invite students to participate in research, giving numerous students the possibility to expand their knowledge and experience research work. In doing so, students develop professional and scientific research competences, both general and specific.

Research is conducted through the following internal Research Institutes and Centres:

• Institute for Management of Real Estate,
• Comparative Law Centre,
• Intellectual Property Centre.

Since 2007, all three institutes have been registered in Slovenian Research Agency Evidence of Research Organizations.

 “Research work at the European Law Faculty includes many dimensions of legal, social sciences and engineering issues. We encourage lecturers, researchers and students to integrate into basic and applicative research projects, to publish research findings in domestic and foreign scientific and professional publications and to participate in various competitions and conferences. In a short time, the European Law Faculty has made big steps in the field of research and has become one of the recognized research institutions within the national and international environment. “

izr. prof. dr. Alenka Temeljotov Salaj, Vice-dean for research and development at European Faculty of Law

There are four institutes (research groups) within the Faculty:

• Institute for Management of Real Estate
• Comparative Law Centre
• Intellectual Property Centre
• Centre for International Studies

Since 2007, all three institutes have been registered in the Slovenian Research Agency Evidence of Research Organizations.

Centre for administrative education has been a special organizational unit of the Faculty since it was established in 2008. Faculty organizes seminars and other lifelong learning events in cooperation with the center.

Institute for Management of Real Estate

The institute for Management of Real Estate on the European Faculty of Law is the first trans-disciplinary institution in Slovenia for real estate research. The institute wants to contribute to development of the science of interdisciplinary field of real estate with its legal, economic, technical, social and organizational characteristics.

The Institute for Management of Real Estate conducts research and development activities in the form of programs and projects focused on basic and applied research. The institute plans industrial research in the future.

Basic research is mostly carried out in the areas of ownership relations within individual countries of the European Union; development and the effects of the real estate market in Slovenia and Europe; real estate issues regarding spatial and environmental development of the countries and the European Union; and prosperity, development of society and national identity.

Applied research covers: international law part of the European Real Estate law; institutional aspects of the European law concerning spatial and environmental aspects; property rights law; European financial and real estate law; social psychology of the real estate issues; and the development of real estate management.

Comparative Law Centre

Comparative Law Centre is an institute that focuses on research and consultancy activities. The Institute is concerned with the development of legal science, and focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to theoretical and practical legal issues.

The Centre has two functions. First, the practical role of the Institute is ensuring legal advice in the Goriška region as well as to general Slovenian economy. Members of the Faculty work with the Comparative Law Centre, which gives us the resource of a wide range of lawyers and other experts on business law, European law and international law. The institute offers advice on the establishment of legal entities and offers support in specific conflict situations. The second, theoretical role of the Institute, is participating in both private and public research projects, where it focuses on dogmatic knowledge of individual legal disciplines, reflected in comparative law. The Institute conducts research and development activities in the form of programs and projects focused on basic and applied research. Basic research will be undertaken in two key areas, namely public and private law. Due to the Euro-Atlantic integrations the research is also focused on European law. As the name and the program of the Institute suggests, the common denominator of the basic research is comparative law from the perspective of specific legal issues and problems.

Similarly, applied research covers specific and specialized areas of law, including property law aspects of the European dimension, trends in public and private commercial law in the European Union, development of international public law, trends in legal practice of the European Court of Human Rights and how they concern Slovenian legal regulation, as well as other related legal issues.

Intellectual Property Centre

The program of the Intellectual Property Centre at the European Faculty of Law focuses on two main activities.

The first activity is research. The Centre researches and explores new trends in the legal protection of intellectual property that are a result of unimagined technological changes on one hand and competition because of globalization on the other. The Centre focuses primarily on a number of issues concerning the European Union, who, despite longstanding efforts failed to achieve certain fundamental objectives (e.g. a single EU-patent that would apply for the whole area of the internal market, or so called Community patent). Research projects and future master’s and doctoral thesis will be in this context concerned with the analysis of the issues relevant for Slovenia as a member state of the EU. Slovenian economy consists mainly of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as some technologically advanced companies with a worldwide presence, mostly in niches. Apart from knowledge of all legal principles of protection, such economic structure also requires development and arrangement of appropriate economic and business interpretation of individual intellectual property rights. This also means that research and development work is multidisciplinary in nature and therefore reaches beyond mere study of the legal aspects of intellectual property.

Multidisciplinary approach is also linked with another key activity of the center, which is consulting-practical. Business consultancy on intellectual property in Slovenia in relatively underdeveloped. On the other hand, the placement of products of Slovenian companies beyond the small Slovenian market is crucial for economic growth and prosperity. A direct result of sales in international markets is one kind of an encounter with the issue of intellectual property rights. Therefore, the focus on business consulting for Slovenian businesses is an important activity, which is, on the other side, also the source for issues and challenges stemming from theoretical research. The two activities of the Centre are thus complementary. Centre’s advisory work is performed individually at the request of a business, as well as via seminars, workshops and open conferences.

Centre for International Studies

The Centre for International Studies was established in 2014 as an organizational unit of the Faculty that would implement programs of international academic cooperation, which include all types of transnational higher education programs, programs of international exchange of students and lecturers, all kinds of international research programs and other international academic activities, such as international scientific conferences and symposia, international publishing projects and international scientific and professional consultancy.