[4] Established in April 2008 under the name Italian Legal Scholarship Unbound Working Paper Series,[5] the publication was later renamed when its affiliation with Bocconi University School of Law became official.
[9] This format has been argued to be more in tune with the academic and editorial background of European legal scholarly publishing, which is largely dominated by peer-reviewed journals.
[10] Namely, the idea behind this working paper series is to create an additional level of feedback prior to final publication in a journal run by academics,[11] thereby complementing the role of peer-reviewed venues as a showcase for quality scholarship.
The network offers the possibility to qualified law students from either of the participant schools to earn, along with a suitable academic qualification from their home university, also an international Themis certificate, requiring completion of a semester abroad, an internship, and participation in the Themis programme seminar.
Students are also required to attend a specified number of courses during a semester spent abroad, at one of the universities of the network.