Isak, Hubert

Short biography

Hubert Isak was born in 1955 and studied law at the University of Graz where he graduated (PhD) in 1978. In 1979/80, he studied in Paris. Professor Isak was assistant at the Institute of International Law and International Relations from February 1978 to 2002. From 1992 onwards, Professor Isak was assigned to the Institute for European Law which he helped to install. He was associate director of this Institute from 1997-1999 and from 1999-2002 and has been director of the Institute for European Law since October 2003.

In 1985/86, Isak was assigned to the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs where he worked in the Department for International Law. He was member of the Austrian delegation at the UN Conference on the Right of Treaties between States and International Organisations and between Intrenational Organisations (1986). In 1995/96, Professor Isak was the first Austrian to be awarded the Jean Monnet professorship for the law of the European Union.

Isak gives lectures at the Danube University Krems and at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. He has also given numerous lectures in Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. Professor Isak is member of the Austrian Association of International Law, board member of the Austrian Association of European Law and of the ECSA/Austrian Branch. Isak is also member of the advisory board for European law at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

In 1996, Isak was promoted to professor for International Law and European Law. In his thesis for his postdoctoral lecture qualification he wrote on „The European Legal Area. Legal Developments in the spell of European Integration” which analysed the differentiated structure of integration within the European Union and the graded form of participation especially by countries from Central and Eastern Europe.

Professor Isak’s main research interests lie within the institutional and constitutional issues of the European Union, questions at the boundaries of European and International law and the foreign relations of the European Union (under special consideration of the enlargement and the relations with the countries of South Eastern Europe).

Foundations of EU Law with Special Reference to the Law of the Internal Market
External action of the EU, with special reference to SEE

The (legal) developments in South Eastern Europe are essentially formed by the requirements and targets of the law of the European Union. Therefore, it is indispensable to cover the European framework next to a presentation of national legal developments. It is the aim of the course on “basic principles” to familiarize our students with the central mechanisms of European law. Usually, quite a lot of brushing up on old knowledge is needed…

The second course deals with the legal bases of EU foreign relations with a special focus on the developing relations with the Western Balkans. We will discuss the stabilization, association and enlargement process in general; but we will also talk about the possibility of the EU being a future global player of which it has proven to be capable with regard to the Western Balkans.