Jean Monnet Chair in EU Money Law

Money performs as a means of payment, a reserve of value and a unit of account, but it is also a means of identity for all people joining a community. In other words, it is a means of “community belonging” and the community members enjoy a common “money identity”.

It depends on the rights and the obligations of payment service provider and payment service user, on the legal protection provided for payment service users’ payment data, on the risk allocation in the process of discharging monetary obligations, on the competition policy, but also on the approach to alternative and complementary currencies as well as the policy strategy towards fintech innovations. Will the EU policymaker allow, prohibit or regulate, virtual currencies? How about the European Union approach to Libra?

Jean Monnet Chair in EU Money Law (EUMOL) will set up a new teaching in the field of European Studies, enjoying the harmonisation process in the field of money and payment services. This process began in the second half of the 70s as a negative harmonisation, based upon the EU Court of Justice preliminary rulings. In the 80s, the European Commission issued a series of soft laws, but in the second half of the 90s, the first directives were approved. They concerned the cross border credit transfers and the settlement finality directive. in the following years, the European Union moved from a minimum to a full harmonisation process, matching directives with regulations. Actually, the most important source of law is 2015 Payment Service Directive (the so called PSD2).

EUMOL Chair enjoys a three-tier structure. Indeed, it covers

1. Money as a social institution.
2. Money as a micro-payment system.
3. Money as a macro-payment system.

To each topic, EUMOL Chair will devote a yearly workshop, to be held in the second week of December. It is the so called EUMOL WINTER SCHOOL.

EUMOL Chair will deliver lectures and seminars to undergraduate and graduate students, on the negative and positive harmonisation process for payment services, but also new payment instruments, fintech innovations, bitcoins and other virtual currencies.

EUMOL will deliver a training course in Italian to university students and consumer associations’ members. This course covers the Arbitro Bancario and Finanziario (ABF) case law on online payments.

In the same areas, EUMOL covers also research activities, carried on by the Chair holder alone and with one or more key teaching staff members.