Late September I was in Venice to award diplomas of the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation. The fantastic venue of this programme is only one of its assets. One other great asset is that our colleague Ria Wolleswinkel chairs the executive committee of the Master’s programme. Representatives of the participating faculties handed over the diplomas in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.

There are worse places – surrounded by paintings of Tintoretto – to receive a diploma. At night over dinner I was sitting next to a Czech political scientist who asked me whether legal academics still write books or publish mostly in journals instead. This was a question that nicely fitted an event that took place in Maastricht in that same week: the launch of a new Faculty book series.

The answer I gave my noble and learned colleague was that books are indeed still of great importance to jurists. This is not only true for PhD theses that, different from many other fields, do usually not consist of a collection of published articles. It is also true for handbooks and monographs in which a certain field or topic is systematically exposed. There is value in connecting seemingly disperse topics, in systematisation, and in the consistent elaboration of an idea. This does not mean that journal articles are not also highly valued, but it does mean that books are at least equally important.This is reflected in the launch of a new Faculty book series. On 28 September the Maastricht Law Series was officially presented at a reception in the Common Room. Also present were our publishers: Wirt Soetenhorst of Boom Juridische Uitgevers and Selma Hoedt of Eleven International Publishing. Five books (in wonderful Maastricht blue) were already published, of which three by colleagues from Maastricht.

Books in both Dutch and English are published in the series. This is not the first faculty book series: the Ius Commune series and the Maastricht Series in Human Rights existed until last year. In previous times there was a separate Public Law series. The editorial board rightly expects a lot from this new adventure.