It is with much sadness that the College of Europe has learned of the tragic death of Ivo VAN BAEL on 6 February 2013. Ivo VAN BAEL counted among the few honorary professors of the College of Europe, a distinction bestowed only on those former professors who taught at the College for more than twenty years and contributed significantly to the reputation of the College in their respective field. And this Ivo VAN BAEL indeed did.
He was a member of the faculty of the European Legal Studies Department of the College from 1984 until his retirement in 2008. For close to twenty-five years, he taught a seminar on European Antitrust and Antidumping Procedure and Enforcement, something for which he was ideally suited, considering his legal education, his professional practice centered on European Competition and European Trade Law and his personality.
He earned degrees from the University of Leuven (1958 and 1961), the Bologna Law School (1960), Johns Hopkins (1962) and the Michigan Law School (1963).
Early on he took an interest in European Community Law which was then beginning to impress its mark on the path of the European integration process with landmark court rulings such as Van Gend & Loos and Costa-ENEL and with the development of EEC competition law and EEC trade law.
He first worked as an associate for well-known law firms in New York and Brussels, becoming in 1973 partner of De Bandt, Van Hecke, Lagae & Van Bael, the first fully integrated large law firm to be established in Belgium. However, in 1986, he decided, together with his colleague and friend, Jean-François BELLIS, to found a new law firm, Van Bael & Bellis, in order to concentrate and develop their practice in the field of European Competition and European Trade Law.
Ivo VAN BAEL and Jean-François BELLIS have argued many of the important competition and trade cases that the European Commission and/or the European Court of Justice have decided since the mid 1970’s.
As an attorney, Ivo VAN BAEL displayed rigour, broad technical competence, incisiveness, dogged determination and, let us use the word, courage.
Courage he had shown when in mid-career he decided to found a new law firm, with international ambitions, in Brussels. Courage he also showed when representing clients before the Commission and the Court of Justice, bringing, at times, these European institutions to task, when in his opinion, short shrift was given to fairness and to procedural safeguards or when he would come through a lack of professionalism on the part of his opponent, such as in the case of submissions tainted with plagiarism.
Actually, it is because of these qualities that he was invited by the College of Europe to teach a seminar on European antitrust and anti-dumping procedural rules. It was thought that, in the interest of students, given the topic, an attorney with the characteristics of Ivo Van Bael would be better suited to teach such a seminar than would a civil servant administering these rules.
He was a much appreciated teacher. He enlived his seminar by drawing on his vast knowledge of – and experience with – competition and trade cases and by resorting to videos. He felt genuine pleasure in being able to share his expertise and professional insights with his students, among whom several would, after graduating, start their legal career under his auspices. His law firm was also among the founding members of the Global Competition Law Centre of the College of Europe.
In addition to being a talented practitioner, a lively teacher, Ivo VAN BAEL was the author or co-author of several books, seen as guides in the professional world of competition and trade lawyers, and of many articles and reports. Testimony to his international reputation, the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association called on him to chair committees dealing with European and international competition and trade issues. He was as much at ease in London, New York or Tokyo, as in Brussels.
Ivo Van Bael, the dedicated professional, was also a devoted family man and a loyal and entertaining friend. He was fond of jazz and, in his spare time, would play the clarinette and the saxophon. He liked sport activities and, for him, a way to relax was to be at the helm of a sailboat crossing the Atlantic.
The College of Europe and its department of European legal studies will remember Ivo with respect and with affection and present to his wife and children, in particular to Ellen, a College alumna, their deepest sympathy.
Paul Demaret
Bruges, 14 February 2013