Approximately seven years ago, the United Kingdom Association for European Law (UKAEL) launched a research blog, which was potentially the only blog in the UK related to EU law at the time. The blog was managed by postgraduate research students, and we are grateful to Mathias Cheung, Sofia Nocentini, and Kinga Robutka for their work and efforts in providing an essential platform in the UK to engage with developments in EU law and raise awareness of its significance. Unfortunately, the blog has been on hiatus for some time now. However, during its short existence, it managed to attract more than 200 subscribers and publish significant work by both early career and established scholars and practitioners on various topics, ranging from substantive areas such as EU criminal law, EU public procurement, and EU data protection to more existential questions regarding the EU’s accession to the ECHR and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Despite the UK’s departure from the EU, the UKAEL executive committee, under Paul Craig’s presidency, was unanimous in its belief that this is a critical time to maintain and revive UKAEL’s online platform to discuss and reflect on EU law developments. Therefore, in 2023, UKAEL decided to relaunch the blog by appointing a new editorial team led by Theodore Konstadinides, Professor in Law at the University of Essex, as its chief editor. The editorial team also consists of three deputy editors: Alina Carrozini, who is a Lecturer in European Law at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Anastasia Karatzia, who is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Essex; and Niall O’Connor, who is also a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Essex. The editorial team is joined by two editorial assistants, Eleftheria Asimakopoulou and Andreas Karapatakis, who are doctoral candidates at the Queen Mary University of London, Department of Law.

This first editorial also serves as a call for papers. We invite authors to submit posts on any issues related to EU law, and we are particularly interested in publishing contributions in European law more broadly, including the law of the ECHR. Although the focus is on the Union, we welcome posts on other areas as well. While there will inevitably be posts about Brexit and the new relationship between the EU and the UK, this is not a blog dealing exclusively with UK-EU relations law. Other platforms provide amazing resources in this regard. We are thrilled to take over this initiative and hope that, with your support, the Blog will become a strong and accessible resource for EU law matters, attracting students, academics, practitioners, and bringing new faces closer to UKAEL and its regular events (please see here about how to join UKAEL as a member: https://ukael.org/membership/).

If you wish to contribute a blog post, please contact us by submitting a MS Word file of up to 1000 words, including a short indicative title, at the following email address (ukaelblogs@gmail.com) and one of us will respond shortly after submission.

 Theodore Konstadinides (on behalf of the UKAEL blog team)