The Collection

General Presentation

The Core Competences for International & European Careers collection is the result of a collective pedagogical project initiated within the European School of Law (ESL) in Toulouse. It was designed to address a clearly identified need: to provide students and recent graduates with a rigorous and accessible reference tool for navigating the broad professional landscape of international and European careers — whether in the public or private sector, in supranational institutions or civil society organisations.

A funnel approach

The collection follows a progressive logic: the first volumes lay the foundations of competencies common to all international and European careers — application techniques, intercultural communication, multilingualism, and knowledge of institutional environments — before addressing, in subsequent volumes, the specificities of particular sectors or professional fields. This editorial architecture reflects the coordinators’ conviction that mastering foundational competencies is the indispensable prerequisite for any professional specialisation.

A collective editorial project

Each volume is written by students from ESL’s Master’s programmes — primarily the Master of International and Comparative Law (MADIC), the former Master in International and Economic Law (MINTEC), and Comparative European Private International Law (CEPIL) — under the supervision of their pedagogical coordinators. ESL Alumni, now engaged in their own professional careers, enrich contributions with direct field experience. The texts are informed by interviews conducted with practitioners from European institutions, international organisations, law firms, multinational corporations, and civil society organisations. This guide is neither an academic dissertation nor an internship report: its goal is to concretely accompany young graduates in the first steps of their professional journey.

A competency-based approach

The collection does not seek to provide an exhaustive inventory of professions available in international and European environments. Its ambition is broader: to identify, define, and contextualise the competencies — behavioural, linguistic, methodological, and substantive — that these environments demand, and to provide readers with concrete tools for developing and demonstrating them in a recruitment process.

Open access

All publications are made freely available, in keeping with the project’s academic mission: to disseminate useful knowledge as widely as possible, without restriction.

Methodology

Our approach

Published volumes draw on a competency-based approach: each publication identifies target competencies, contextualises them within European and international realities, and provides concrete tools for developing and demonstrating them throughout the application process.

Professional grounding is at the heart of the approach: contributions are developed in close collaboration with practitioners from European institutions and international organisations, ensuring that content remains relevant and up to date.

Target Audience

Students in law, political science, international relations, economics or any field aspiring to a career in European or international institutions.

Early-career professionals seeking to enter a European or international institution.

Educators and trainers wishing to integrate a competency-based approach into their teaching.