On 13 May 2019, the Europa-Kolleg Hamburg celebrated the 85th birthday of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Peter Häberle (Bayreuth/St. Gallen) with an international festive colloquium. In his welcome speech, Markus Kotzur recalled the formative achievements of Hans Peter Ipsen and later Gert Nicolaysen in the development of European law as an independent legal discipline. According to Prof. Dr. Kotzur, Häberle’s “Opus Magnum”, the European Constitutional Law, further developed the ideas of the Hamburg School and shaped the constitutional Europe of today’s stage of development on the basis of his approach on research in cultural and comparative legal studies. Prof. Dr. Paolo Ridola of the University “La Sapienza” in Rome held the laudatory speech and the lecture, which was based on Häberle’s habilitation thesis on public welfare and public interests, was managed by Prof. Dr. Lothar Michael (University of Düsseldorf). A European-inspired commentary on the topic by Dr. Justus Vasel (University of Hamburg) and the thank-you speech of the honoured rounded off the event.
