Laurence W. GORMLEY

Prof. Dr. Laurence W. GORMLEY has taught in the Law Department at the College in Bruges since 2004 (having previously taught in Bruges and then at Natolin 1993—1999 on the PECO programme).

He graduated from the e University of Oxford in Modern History and Modern Languages in 1975 (M.A., 1979); took a M.Sc. in European Studies at the London School of Economics in 1976, and in 1978 was called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Middle Temple. He was first Hon. Sir Peter Bristow Scholar of the Middle Temple, and held a Rotary Foundation Fellowship at the Europa Institute at Utrecht University, where he took his doctorate in 1985, with a dissertation on Prohibiting Restrictions on Trade within the EEC (Amsterdam, North Holland, 1985).

After completing pupillage, and being a Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool, he worked as an official of the Commission of the European Communities in Brussels from 1983 to 1990. He was appointed to the Chair of European Law in the Law Faculty at the University of Groningen on 1 September 1990 and became Emeritus Professor in November 2019. He was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair in 1995, and headed the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at Groningen, recognised by the European Commission in 1999. He is a Bencher of the Middle Temple.

His principal publications are in the field of EU Law, with the main emphasis being on the areas of the free movement of goods; customs law; public procurement; taxation, and the internal market; he has also published a number of articles on the judicial architecture of the EU and judicial review in EU law.

He edited and revised the 2nd (1989) and 3rd (1998) editions of Kapteyn & VerLoren van Themaat's Introduction to the Law of the European Communities and wrote the contributions on Customs Union and the Free Movement of Goods and on Taxation in Vol. 52 of Halsbury’s Laws of England 4th. ed. (1986). His EU Taxation Law (2005, 2nd ed. In preparation) and EU Law of Free Movement of Goods and Customs Union (2009) are published by Oxford University Press.

His more recent publications include:

  • ‘After the use cases: This sorry state of things entire’ (2012) European Journal of Consumer Law 269—282;
  • ‘Access to Justice: Rays of Sunshine on Judicial Review or Morning Clouds on the Horizon?’ (2013) 36 Fordham Int’l. LJ 1169—1189;
  •  ‘Keeping EU Citizens out is wrong’ (2013) 21 Journal de Droit Européen No. 202, 316—320;
  • ‘Third-Country Goods in the Internal Market: Some Issues’, in I Govaere & D Hanf (eds.) Scrutinizing Internal and External Dimensions of European Law (Liber Amicorum Paul Demaret, 2013) 313—323;
  • ‘New Rules in Public Procurement — for better, for worse, or another dog’s breakfast?’ in A.G. Bregman et al., (eds.), Onbegrensde rechtsbeoefening (Opstellen aangeboden aan prof. mr. Dick Lubach), 173—183 (2014);
  • ‘Private Parties and the Free Movement of Goods: Responsible, Irresponsible, or a Lack of Principles?’ (2015) 38 Fordham Int’l. LJ 993—1016;
  • ‘Inconsistencies and Misconceptions in the Free Movement of Goods’ (2015) 40 ELRev. 925—939;
  • ‘Brexit – Never Mind the Whys and Wherefores? Fog in the Channel, Continent Cut Off!’ (2017) 40 Fordham Int’l. LJ 1175—1209,
  • ‘Infringement Proceedings’, in A Jakab & D Kochenov (eds.), The Enforcement of EU Law and Values: Ensuring Member States’ Compliance (Oxford University Press, 2017) 6578;
  • The Customs Union, in H C H Hofmann, G C Rowe & A H Türk (eds.), Specialized Administrative Law of the European Union: A Sectoral Review (Oxford University Press, 2018) 102—127.

Laurence Gormley is on the Editorial or Advisory Boards of various journals, including the European Law Review; the European Business Law Review; the European Jounal of Legal Education; The Irish Jurist, and the Public Procurement Law Review.

He is Joint General Editor (with Professor Jo Shaw and Professor Mark Dawson) of Cambridge Studies in European Law and Policy, and is (with Professors Sacha Garben and Kai Purnhagen) Joint General Editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of EU Law (in preparation). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of European Law at the University of Birmingham, and an Emeritus Member of the Society of Legal Scholars. Over the years he has been Visiting Professor at University College London; Bremen; Leuven; Bonn, and Bucerius Law School. He has been a Visiting Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and the Centre for European Legal Studies, University of Cambridge.

From 1995—2005 he was Chairman of the Dutch Association for Procurement Law (of which he is now an Honorary Member). In 2015—2016 he was President of the European Law Faculties Association (ELFA). He has considerable experience in the assessment of research programmes and in accrediting academic teaching programmes. He has written reports for committees of the Dutch Parliament and for local government, and has been an expert witness on EU law in ICC arbitration proceedings.

In 2017 he was appointed Officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau, and in April 2019 he was honoured to be presented with a Festschrift: F. Amtenbrink et al (eds), The Internal Market and the Future of European Integration Essays in Honour of Laurence W. Gormley (Cambridge University Press, 2019, 854 pp.).

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