Dear readers,
As the 2025/2026 academic year comes to an end, this newsletter reflects on the main changes introduced to the Realaw blog over the past year.
The blog now contains ‘Experts’ corners’, where blog pieces dedicated to specific themes are published, highlighting trends in specific legal areas or delving into underexplored topics of EU and comparative administrative law.
Two of these corners have already been launched. Since November 2025, indeed, the blog features an EU Agencies Corner, edited by Prof. Ellen Vos (Maastricht University), and PhD candidates Emma Pecqueux (Maastricht University), Pauline El-Khoury (Maastricht University), and Matthias Hasler (EUI). The corner provides, on the one hand, analysis on topics related to the EU agencies and, on the other hand, interviews carried out with agencies’ executive team members. This combination allows for in-depth, critical and lively discussions on EU agencies.
In April 2026, the blog has also started to host its second experts’ corner: the Nordic Corner. Led by Dr. Ida Asplund (Umeå), the Nordic Corner aims to present administrative law research on Nordic countries, and underlining differences and similarities among these legal systems.
This year, the blog has also opened a new section on ‘Events’, where you can find events relevant to researchers working on European and comparative administrative law. Please feel free to reach out to us if you would like your event to be featured on this page.
Of course, next to those developments, the Realaw blog continues to publish general pieces relating to EU, comparative, and national administrative law. Between September 2025 and July 2025, no less than 50 pieces were published on the blog, which makes it a truly remarkable year at Realaw.blog, and we would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has contributed to our growing community. By publishing insightful contributions, we have aimed at fostering academically diverse discussions, on all things pertaining to EU and comparative administrative matters, from data protection to administrative jurisdiction, from public procurement to environmental governance.
Looking ahead, next academic year sounds all the more promising! Indeed, the editorial team of the blog is planning on launching two additional experts’ corners.
Firstly, one on methodology, led by Dr. Pietro Mattioli (ULiège), which will provide a space for EU legal scholars to engage with methodological and conceptual questions in European administrative law. This corner has two ambitions.
First, it seeks to stimulate discussion on legal research methods and explore how research in administrative law can move beyond traditional doctrinal approaches. Second, the corner aims to reassess the concepts that shape the field through broader methodological debates. From September 2026 onwards, the first series of posts from this corner will be dedicated to the examination of how EU courts access, interpret, and assess technical evidence, and whether the resulting epistemic boundaries remain fit for purpose in light of contemporary expectations of effective judicial review.
Second, this corner of the blog will provide a new space for scholars to comment on domestic case law, reflecting on how national courts interpret and apply EU law and how these developments contribute to the broader understanding and evolution of EU administrative law.
We will be in touch with further updates. In the meantime, do not hesitate to contact Pietro if you would like to share your work, discuss ideas, or explore potential contributions on methodology or domestic case law.
The second new corner, the Digital Corner, edited by Dr. Annemarie Balvert (UvA), will cover issues related to the expanding universe of digital administrative law in the EU. Through blog posts, interviews and book reviews, the Digital Corner will be a forum to discuss both the regulation of digital technologies, as well as the increased influence of digital processes in administrative law and procedure themselves. Tune in in September, for pieces on digitalisation in immigration procedures, the GDPR’s reach, and the AI act in practice, and do get in touch with Annemarie if you would like to see your blog, book or interview up in the Corner in the fall.
Finally, in 2027, it is our ambition that both the Nordic Corner and the Digital Corner host a joint Digital Symposium on the clash between digital regulation and the diverging transparency cultures within the different Member States. Recent cases indeed highlight how the GDPR strains Nordic countries’ commitments to transparency as enshrined in national law, whereas in centric countries, the GDPR can be invoked as a powerful tool to duck national transparency obligations, especially for general transparency. A call for papers will follow after the summer break, but if you would like to contribute to this symposium with your view on transparency culture in an EU Member State, feel free to let us know already and we’ll let you know when the call is out!
Do not forget to also follow us on Linkedin, where we share our most recent updates, and to subscribe to our blog, to make sure you receive our posts weekly.
Please do consider submitting a piece to REALaw.blog to contribute to our academic discussions. We would equally be delighted to hear from you if you have any ideas or suggestions about possible projects (such as topics to be explored, special issues, etc.). We welcome any inquiries in these matters: do drop a line to Justine or Yseult and we will take it from there !
Enjoy the Summer break !