Dr Philip Bajon

Email: [email protected]

Room: SW706

Telephone: +44 (0)121 204 17397

Philip is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at Aston Law School. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of public law, politics, and history.

Philip previously held appointments at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the European University Institute Florence. He also taught at the Japanese Universities of Tokyo Todai, Keio, and Kobe. Prior to joining Aston, Philip was a Senior Fellow at the German Max Planck Society. He is an affiliate member of the Frankfurt Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory.

Philip published extensively on the politics, history, law, and institutions of the European Union and Western European states, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Benelux. His work demonstrates how the historical emergence of European law and EU institutions is embedded in a broader socio-economic context.

Philip’s first book explored the European constitutional crisis of 1965-66, known as the “empty chair policy”. Reviewers highly recommended reading this book “… if one wants to track down the mechanisms of European negotiations in 1965/66 and trace their influence right up to today's European integration policy. With this detailed study of several months of European crisis and French boycott policy, Bajon fills a gap in research." (Ines Soldwisch).

Philip’s forthcoming second book analyses EU decision-making cultures from the 1960s until present-day, with a specific focus on the passage to majority rule, constitutional conventions in European law, and the role of “soft law” in the European Union.

Philip holds scientific side interests in biographical studies, oral history, and Middle Eastern and Japanese History.

• BL3302 European Union Law
• BL2201 Public Law and Regulation

• PhD, Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), France, 2010
• PhD, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, 2010
• Magister Artium, University of Bonn, Germany, 2004
• MA, Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), France, 2003
• BA, University of Bonn, Germany, 2001

• Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Society, Germany, 2015-23
• Lecturer, University of Cologne, Germany, 2013-15
• Lecturer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, 2012-13
• Fellow, Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies, European University Institute Florence, Italy, 2010-12

• Brunel Law School, Brunel University London, Visiting Professor, 2023
• Free University Berlin, Germany, Berliner Kolleg für Vergleichende Geschichte Europas (BKVGE), Associated Researcher, Aug. 2008 to Dec. 2009
• Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, Centre Marc Bloch, Associated Researcher, Dec. 2007 to Dec. 2009

European Law, Legal History, Law in Context, European Studies, Contemporary History

• "Informal Decision-Making in the European Community under the Luxembourg Compromise, 1965-90"
• "Key Biographies in the Legal History of the European Union", with Prof. Stefan Vogenauer (Frankfurt)
• "methodica - Introductions to Research on EU Legal History", with Prof. Stefan Vogenauer (Frankfurt)
• "Global Legal Biography", with Dr Victoria Barnes (Queen's University Belfast)
• "An Oral History of the European Court of Justice", in cooperation with Historical Archives of the European Union, Florence

• Qualification à enseigner aux postes de Maître de conférences, 2011 to present
• German Historical Institute London, Research Fellowship, 2017
• German Historical Institute Paris, Karl-Ferdinand-Werner-Fellowship, 2017
• Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme (FMSH), Paris / Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Bonn, Research Fellowship (declined), 2012

• Affiliate member of Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt, Germany
• French-German Committee of Historians / Comité franco-allemand des Historiens

• Co-manager of the international collaborative research network "Towards a New History of European Public Law", Saxo Institute University of Copenhagen and Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt
• Elected Representative in the Max Planck Scientific Council, 2018-21

• Managing Editor of "methodica – Introductions to Research in Legal History", De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Philip welcomes research proposals within his areas of research interest.

• "A battle-tested Community". In MaxPlanckResearch 1(2019)

• "methodica – A New Textbook on the History of European Law", Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt, Germany, 9-10 June 2022
• "Law meets History. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Origins and Evolution of the Present-Day European Union", Historical Archives of the European Union, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, 28-30 Oct. 2019
• "Key Biographies in the Legal History of European Union 1950-1993", Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt, Germany, 21-22 June 2018
• "Treaties as travaux préparatoires: Conference on the 60th Anniversary of the Treaties of Rome", Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt, Germany, 21-23 June 2017
• "EU Legal History in a Transnational and National Perspective", Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt, Germany, 26-27 Jan. 2017