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In memoriam Prof. Em. Marc Maresceau
Marc Maresceau, emeritus professor at Ghent university and former visiting professor at the College of Europe, regrettably passed away on 27 October 2025, at the age of 77.
Marc Maresceau studied at the Faculty of Law of Ghent University, at Johns Hopkins University (Bologna) and the Institut de hautes Études Internationales in Geneva. He defended his doctoral thesis on direct effect of European Community law at Ghent University in 1977 and worked as a Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
In 1984, Marc Maresceau was appointed full-time professor at Ghent University and held the ‘Belgian Chair’ at King’s College London, where he worked closely with Sir Francis Jacobs. Long before internationalisation became a common practice in academia, Marc already adopted a very international approach to academic life. He held visiting chairs at many universities, including the Università di Bologna; University of Georgia, Athens; China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing; Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV; Università di Pisa (Scuola Sant' Anna); Université de Rennes I; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Libera Università Mediterranea; Université de Nice and Paris II.
Marc Maresceau was a man of the world and a visionary European. Before anyone else, he understood the importance of EU enlargement and the relations between the Union and its neighbouring countries. Already in 1987, he organised a groundbreaking conference devoted to the legal framework of the trade relations between the European Economic Community and Eastern Europe. During the 1990s, he developed the Ghent European Institute as a leading centre of expertise for the study of EU enlargement towards the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. New generations of EU law experts were trained in Ghent and contributed to the legal and political transition after the end of the communist era in this region.
Apart from his specific expertise and interest in Central and Eastern Europe, Marc also worked on the EU’s relations with other neighbouring countries such as Switzerland and the micro-states of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican. He was a leading expert in the field of EU external relations law. His contribution to the collected courses of the Hague Academy of International Law, published in 2004, offered a detailed study of the bilateral agreements concluded by the European Community. It served as a standard work on this topic. Together with Alan Dashwood, he edited a leading volume on ‘The Law and Practice of EU External Relations Law’ (CUP, 2009) Also after his retirement in 2014, Marc Maresceau continued his academic activities. This resulted in significant recent publications on the origins and practice of EU enlargement, published in The Cambridge History of the European Union (2023) and an edited volume on EU-Switzerland relations (2023). This latter book was published in the ‘Studies in EU External Relations’ series of Brill-Nijhoff, were he served as general editor since the start of the series in 2008.
The important contribution of Marc Maresceau to the study of European integration has been recognized by the European Commission through the award of a Jean Monnet Chair ad personam and by the establishment of Ghent University as a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence with the European Institute as its coordinator. Marc Maresceau was also President of the European Communities Studies Association (ECSA) between 1999 and 2002. He was consultant/academic expert for various projects of the European Commission in non-EU countries.
Apart from a brilliant academic, Marc Maresceau was also a book collector and a bibliophile. Over the years, he had build an impressive collection of books, mainly on law, history, politics and international relations. Under his leadership, the library of the European Institute was awarded the status of European Documentation Centre (EDC) and developed into one of the most important libraries on European integration in Belgium.
Through his publications, lectures and involvement in professional organizations, Professor Marc Maresceau earned recognition both in Europe and abroad as a leading voice in his field. His legacy will continue to inspire.
