How do states and societies draw lessons for the future from historical events, and what role did (and does) law play in the peaceful rebuilding of Europe after the wars and political transformations of the 20th and early 21st century? This lecture will look at European legal history shaped by (and shaping) war and peace agreements as well as the legal and political change processes that have occurred in the countries of the former Communist bloc since 1989. Eventually arriving in the present, we will take a glimpse at the European Union’s potential as a common European legal space.