Law is a discipline in transition moving, among others, from a predominantly monodisciplinary dogmatic tradition towards more and more attention for multidisciplinary and empirical legal research, from a national to a more international and global orientation and from a research culture of 'laissez faire' towards more managerial control, rankings and research programming. Questions lying in wait are, among others: how can we revitalise doctrinal legal research in Europe in a way that it is up for the challenges of the future, such as the blurring of borders between European and national law, public and private law and state and non-state law and what does the multidisciplinary turn in legal research mean for the education of law students and starting researchers? Moreover, how should legal scholars react to the increased instrumentalisation of law in order to avoid that legal research is reduced to a policy tool that is meant to 'solve' the major societal problems of today? We believe that what is required is not only more focus on methodology with a small 'm' concentrating on how to train new generations of academics to conduct different sorts of legal research. Just as much needed is more attention in research and education for the importance of methodology with a big 'M' aiming for (self-)criticism, awareness of the risk of advocacy scholarship and herd behaviour and concentrating on slow science: theory-building with the intention to explain why law in a globalised world develops as it does.

On 1 February 2012, member states of the European Union minus the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic agreed on the text of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (the Fiscal Compact Treaty or FCT), subsequently signed on 2 March 2012. The new international treaty poses a number of questions on compatibility with EU law, implications for the Union legal system, institutional balance, national sovereignty and democratic accountability. The EUI debate on the FCT addressed some of these issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an important case study, on a global scale, of how democracy works - and fails to work - today. From leadership to citizenship, from due process to checks and balances, from globalization to misinformation, from solidarity within and across borders to the role of expertise, key democratic concepts both old and new are now being put to the test. The future of democracy around the world is at issue as today's governments manage their responses to the pandemic. Bringing together some of today's most creative thinkers, these essays offer a variety of inquiries into democracy during the global pandemic with a view to imagining post-crisis political conditions. Representing different regions and disciplines, including law, politics, philosophy, religion, and sociology, eighteen voices offer different outlooks - optimistic and pessimistic - on the future.