The Research School Ius Commune is a cooperation between the law schools of the Universiteit Maastricht, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the Universiteit Utrecht and the Universiteit van Amsterdam.

The School was instituted in December 1995; in spring of 1998 the Research School was officially accredited by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In spring of 2003 and 2009 this Academy granted the Research School a follow-up accreditation. Approximately 230 researchers and 130 PhD-researchers are members of the Research School. These scholars execute the research programme of the School. The first programme of the School was ‘Ius Commune and private law’ which contains several sub-programmes. In autumn of 2003 also the programme ‘Ius Commune and public law’ became admitted to the School.

The Research School Ius Commune supports the research of the research that participate in the School. In addition the School organises the training programme for the PhD-researchers that have been admitted to the School.

The board of the Research School consists of representatives of the four participating faculties. The daily management of the school is in the hands of an academic director and a manager. The training coordinator is responsible for the training programme. The PhD-researchers gather in a PhD-council which has an advisory task with respect to the training programme.

Every year in the month November one of the faculties that participate in the Ius Commune Research School organises the Ius Commune yearly conference. During these Ius Commune conferences a few plenary sessions are organised in which attention is paid to general topics related to the Ius Commune Research School. In addition several workshops are held where attention is paid to the research performed within the various sub-programmes.