The Central and Eastern European Forum of Young Legal, Political and Social Theorists (CEE Forum) was initiated by a group of young researchers working in those fields at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. It was the aim of the initiators to change the currently dominant practice of following the paths created mainly in other parts of the world and to try to establish a community able to provide a competitive environment for original investigations in the field of legal, political and social theory. They were dissatisfied with the situation in which they were unaware of what colleagues from their neighbourhood were working on and wanted to stress the intention of establishing ties allowing exchanging ideas, leading to independent and original developments.

The motivating ideas behind the Forum are twofold. Primarily, the annual conferences are academic events which provide the opportunity for junior legal scholars, political and social scientists to present their research. The first conference took place at the Silesian University in Katowice, Poland in May 2009. The following conferences were held at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary, in May 2010 and at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, in March 2011 (for the details see Annual Conferences). So far, half of the papers were theoretical, the others discussed topical legal, political and socio-economic issues in Central and Eastern Europe. A number of researchers put a special emphasis on the impact of theoretical insights in particular national or regional contexts; others addressed local problems in a comparative manner and in wider theoretical contexts. After the conferences, selected papers are published in an edited volume.

Second, the Forum contributes to establishing and maintaining ties and networks for future common projects. With an increased academic mobility within Europe, young researchers from Central and Eastern Europe follow different strategies. Some are working at universities in their home country, others study or seek jobs at academic institutions in Western Europe and beyond, still others combine these strategies. These people often face difficulties in finding contacts to scholars with similar interests at other places of the world often even if they are working in the neighboring countries. The Forum shall contribute to establishing a genuine community of young legal, social and political theorists in Europe.