On Monday 13 February, the Institut Universitaire de France awarded Professor Aurore Gaillet, junior member of the IUF (class of 2018), the 2022 Prize of the Édouard Bonnefous Foundation - Institut de France, on the proposal of the Legislation, Public Law and Jurisprudence section of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. The ceremony took place at the l'Institut de France. The prize was presented to her by Pierre Delvolvé.

The professor of the Institut de Recherche en Droit Européen, International et Comparé (IRDEIC) of the University Toulouse Capitole has been awarded for her book "La Cour constitutionnelle fédérale allemande. Reconstructing a democracy through law (1945-1961)", published in 2021 by La Mémoire du Droit.
 

Aurore Gaillet has been working on Franco-German public law for many years. Her latest book focuses on the German Federal Constitutional Court, one of the central and regulatory institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany, enjoying a powerful political and moral authority. To understand it, a dive into the first fifteen years of post-World War II reconstruction is indispensable. Only the direct experience of the National Socialist dictatorship allows us to fully grasp the purpose of the Basic Law of 1949: a purpose that seeks to revive the democratic legitimacy of the popular will and at the same time to renew the old legal culture of the liberal constitutional state, combining the limitation of power by law with the guarantee of individual freedoms.

His book retraces this history through a legal, political, institutional and intellectual investigation. It is a new gateway to the history of Germany, and invites us to reflect further on constitutional justice in contemporary liberal democracies.

The Edouard Bonnefous Foundation - Institut de France is responsible for awarding a Grand Prix each year, on the recommendation of a jury composed of members of the Institute, and six prizes on the recommendation of each of the sections of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, each of which nominates a winner every two years.

This year, the Grand Prix was awarded to the association Le Recho par Jean-Robert Pitte. It also honoured the philosopher Olivier Rey, the professor Yvan Leclerc, the lawyer Aurore Gaillet, the authors Laurence Badel and Sabine Jansen, the economist Philippe Dessertine and the historian Christian Baechler on behalf of its 2022 Awards.

This prize rewards the excellence of the research carried out at the University Toulouse Capitole. Let us recall that UT Capitole has no less than 6 IUF chairs. Indeed, on 26 May 2022, a decree from the Minister of Higher Education and Research designated 6 new teacher-researchers from UT Capitole as members of the Institut Universitaire de France, for a period of 5 years from 1 October 2022:
 

The celebration of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Franco-German friendship treaty, known as the Élysée Treaty, last January, was an opportunity for Faculty of Law of the University of Toulouse Capitole to recall the essential place in its training and research of this founding friendship of Europe. The European School of Law (ESL) offers three international double degrees with Germany :

As a proof of this close collaboration with Germany, University Toulouse Capitole welcomed Dieter Grimm, former judge at the German Federal Constitutional Court, for a conference-interview led by Aurore Gaillet. This meeting, which focused on the theme "A life as a constitutional judge and professor of public law", took place at the Arsenal.
 

In order to promote young legal research in Toulouse and on the initiative of Aurore Gaillet, the Faculty of Law will soon launch a student prize entitled "Democracy through Law". A great project to follow...