This new Journal is the outcome – certainly provisional – of years of scientific attention to the judicial or jurisdictional development of European Union law, by which we mean the role and the work of EU judges, but also, more generally, the dialogue between courts (national and European) and their activities that, in various ways, contribute to the evolution and balance of the system as a whole.

The Rivista del Contenzioso Europeo / Revue du Contentieux Européen / Review of European Litigation will be an electronic journal with a ‘procedural’ purpose and angle. It will focus on the rules applicable before the EU courts, but also, more generally, on the judicial ‘confrontation’ in the broad sense, which is a fundamental instrument in the development of European integration. For this reason, the Review will also pay attention to the issue of relations between national courts and European judges, to the role of national judges as European judges, to the development of relations between jurisdictions that takes place essentially, if not exclusively, through judicial cases, to the point of being now a matter almost ‘naturally’ removed from regulatory intervention.

We believe that the specialization of the Review will represent an added value, also for its uniqueness in the Italian (and possibly also foreign) scientific context. We are obviously aware that this very specific approach may represent a limit, in terms of diffusion and ‘audience’, since the judicial dimension of European integration is a well-known and, in many ways, widely obvious phenomenon, yet destined to remain a ‘niche’ in the legal studies of the EU law. However, we do not want to give up this feature, although we are willing to give space also to contributions on the policies of EU law, as long as they are relevant because of judicial choices made by the EU courts.

To offer a complete analysis tool, we have chosen a rather articulated editorial structure: there is a general part, which contains the most extensive contributions, and a special part, declined in a series of sections. These sections have a purely (but not necessarily) jurisprudential content and they are characterized ratione materiae on topics that we consider relevant in the Review’s perspective. Therefore, there are sections dedicated to: (i) litigation within preliminary rulings, (ii) litigation in direct actions, (iii) litigation generated by pourvois, (iv) interim measures, (v) infringement proceedings, (vi) relations between supreme national courts and European Courts, (vii) (new) litigation before EU Agencies’ Boards of Appeal, (viii) the judicial ‘life’ of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and (ix) the changes concerning the rules of the Court of Justice of the EU.

Our ambition is to become a reference point for all those who want to deal with this field of EU law. For this reason, the Journal, in addition to the quality of the contributions and their scientific accuracy, also aims at ensuring constant updating through three yearly issues, without prejudice to the immediate online publication of each contribution and an annual paper publication.

Finally, the Journal contains three independently developed databases dedicated to private enforcement of antitrust law, the follow-up of preliminary rulings and the litigation generated by EU Agencies’ Boards of Appeal, perfectly consistent with the Review’s inspiration.

The databases, for which the Editors express gratitude, respectively, to Professor Jacopo Alberti and Dr. Filippo Croci, Professor Ilaria Anrò and Dr. Camilla Burelli and, again, Professor Jacopo Alberti, will represent a significant added value, both from the scientific and practical-professional point of view.

The multilingual vocation will result in the publication of contributions also in English and French. This is consistent with the presence, in the Scientific Committee, of important colleagues from other Member States.

The only thing left is to deliver this Journal to the goodness (and needs) of the readers, thanking friends and colleagues, from Milan and from all over Europe, who joined with enthusiasm and commitment, and all those who want, from now on, contribute to the success of this initiative with their work. As an unforgettable Mentor used to write, the errors (and the horrors) that you might find in this initiative, are and will be, of course, only ours.

Massimo Condinanzi, Chiara Amalfitano