Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Judicial process – European Union countries'

Defence date: 29 January 2007
Examining Board: Prof. Christian Joerges, (EUI) ; Prof. Damian Chalmers, (London School of Economics) ; Prof. Alec Stone Sweet, (Yale University) ; Prof. Neil Walker, (EUI)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses

Since 1973, the European Union has been expanding its borders from its six founding members - West Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium, to include all of Western Europe and parts of Scandinavia by 1995. However, with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990, the EU made a difficult but beneficial choice of paving the road for the Eastern and Central European (ECE) to become EU members. However, there was a need for the EU to determine the goals and guidelines that would format the transition of these former communist states into productive members of the EU. This paper will analyze the evolution of these guidelines - formally outlined by the Copenhagen Criteria - that set the precedent for these states to become members. The main issue of this paper will take these criteria a few steps forward, comparing states that were given membership based on the criteria and those who have been established by the EU as at least "potential EU members" but have not been deemed as satisfying these criteria enough to become candidates or full members. Both qualitatively and quantitatively, the comparisions of the 2004 and 2007 new EU members and other states of the Western Balkans and Turkey will be conducted to determine if the political and economic guidelines established by Copenhagen are the only guidelines being met, or if areas such as cultural values and "Europeanness" are also contributing to membership levels.

Overall the conclusions drawn about South Africa’s negotiating style and tactics were arrived at by analysing a number of reports (that closely followed the evolution of the negotiations) and then paralleling this case study’s findings with the conjectures made by the theoretical frameworks (i.e. works by Putnam, Zartmann and Churchmann) about how negotiations proceed. In the final analysis, the findings of this case are intended to provide insight for the south about how to approach any future trade negotiations with the North (or more specifically with the EU).

The dissertation is about the impact of the European Union (EU) on the foreign policy of a candidate in the pre-accession period. More specifically, the research analyses the factors and processes that intervene between the EU power to generate change in Turkish foreign policy and Turkish national compliance with the EU conditions between 1997 and 2005 by way of analysing three cases: Turkish foreign policy towards Cyprus issue, Greek-Turkish bilateral problems in the Aegean Sea; and Turkey’s stance vis-à-vis the launch of the ESDP. Main question the research addresses is “why does a candidate choose to comply (or fail to comply) with the EU conditions in foreign policy?” In other words: “How (through what mechanisms) does the EU generate compliance with the EU conditions in foreign policy?” The dissertation approaches these questions through the perspective of the Europeanization literature and its conditionality school drawing on the Rational Choice Institutionalism. In accordance with this rationalist account, main argument the doctoral research intends to prove is that “the EU’s adaptational pressure on Turkey (operationalized as a function of clear/attainable membership perspective and credible conditionality policy) is a necessary yet not a sufficient condition for domestic compliance in foreign policy if the cost of compliance is high for the target government. In this respect, domestic actors’ strategic calculation is the ultimate determinant of the compliance degrees at the domestic level. In order to prove this core hypothesis, the research used theory testing process-tracing, longitudinal comparison of cases, counter-factual reasoning and the use of a control case. The evidence for testing the argument comes from the measurement of conditionality (measured as the linkage between a given foreign policy condition and membership-related reward) and domestic compliance (measured as foreign policy output ranging from rhetorical to behavioural change) through the content analysis of primary documents. This analysis is complemented with 33 semi-structured elite interviews. The dissertation by proving that the EU’s transformative power in foreign policy works through the cost and benefit calculation of the ruling party and by elaborating on the conditions under which the EU can interfere with this rational calculus (hence modify the opportunity structure for the target government), advances our understanding of the EU’s transformative power and contributes to the Accession Europeanization literature in general. Furthermore, the study provides additional empirical as well as theoretical in-depth case knowledge to the available literature on the Europeanization of Turkey and Turkish foreign policy.
Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales
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Judicial activism implies a hidden politicization of the Court. The legal arguments and the methods used by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) might seem coherent. However, an inquiry into judicial activism means looking beyond the legal reasoning of the Court and trying to “connect the dots” of an alternative narrative that can explain the Court’s long-term approach to certain issues. In the case of judicial activism of the CJEU in the case-law concerning public international law, the veil for the politicization of the Court is provided by the pluralist architecture of global law. The heterarchical structure of relations among legal orders in the international arena activates the CJEU as an actor of global governance. Simultaneously, it results in the Court adopting a rather internal and defensive approach, undermining legal security.

Judicial activism of the CJEU finds its particular expressions in the case-law concerning public international law. The pro-integrationist tendency of the CJEU often raised in the literature concerning the Court’s role in the process of EU integration, translates into a substantial and an institutional dimension of judicial activism. The substantial articulation of judicial activism in the case-law concerning international law is the Court’s emphasis on the autonomy of the EU legal order. This internal perspective is adopted not only for virtuous reasons, but also in defense of definitely not universal European interests. The institutional dimension refers to the Court’s position within the EU structure of governance. The case-law concerning international law is marked by a close alignment with the European Commission and the integration of the EU goals in external relations. Moreover, the pluralist veil can cover the extent to which the Court’s decisions concerning international law are influenced by considerations completely internal to the EU.

In my analysis I proceed in three steps that are reflected in three chapters of the thesis. There is no clear and prevalent definition of judicial activism, but instead rather multiple possibilities of approaching the concept. While the general intend of the research project is to critically reflect on the concept of judicial activism of the highest courts within a legal order, the particular focus will be on the CJEU dealing with international law. I proceed in three steps. First, I assess different understandings of the role of the judge and the concept of judicial activism in legal literature in view of ascertaining the relevance of the debate and distilling some general components of a possible definition. Secondly, I identify the factors particular for the position of the CJEU within the EU legal order and with regard to international law. The particular characteristics of the CJEU result in a limited applicability of the general definitions of judicial activism. Finally, I analyze the case-law in view of identifying examples as well as counter-examples of the particular symptoms/attributes. Because judicial activism broadens the scope of the factors guiding judicial decision-making, it enables us to better understand the contingencies in the Court´s jurisprudence.
Doctorat en Sciences juridiques
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After 12 years of isolation, the relations between Brussels and Minsk have been thawing starting in the last year. One of the components of the policy of re-engagement is the new initiative adopted by the EU called Eastern Partnership (EaP). This thesis sought to answer following question: what were the main reasons for the change in the EU policy towards Belarus after 2008? In order to answer the research question I formulated two hypotheses. The first hypothesis argues that while the EU has acted according to the normative power expectations up until 2008, after that date a more pragmatic approach in the foreign policy has been at work. The second hypothesis explains this change by the increasing influence of Eastern European countries in realm of decision-making processes within the EU, which resulted in a reformed EU foreign policy towards Belarus.These hypotheses are tested in a qualitative case study of the launching of the Eastern Partnership initiative, seen as the most important instrument that defines the new policy of EU. I will focus on the process of decision–making in regards to the adoption of the new initiative towards the Eastern European countries, using the rational actor model and the theory of formal leadership. The results of the paper point out that the main reason for changing the EU foreign policy towards Belarus were connected to pragmatic interests in the economic and energy areas, which weakened the EU normative claims. However, EU values are still counted as political conditionality has recently re-entered the agenda. Thus, the current foreign policy is two-fold: based on rational model of acting and normative power. Moreover, the EaP is the result of the strengthened position of Eastern European countries in terms of the power hierarchy among EU members, with Poland, and the Baltic States playing an increasingly larger role.

This paper compares and analyzes the decoupling processes of carbon emissions to economic growth in the European Union and South and East Asian middle income countries. This is done through econometric methods, testing for a relationship between CO2 and GDP. The study is conducted by first testing for the hypothesis that there is a significant difference of the turning points between the EU and the Asian region, and thereafter if there is a significant difference in the decoupling processes. The findings show that the Asian middle income countries have a lower turning point than the EU. It is also found that the EU experienced absolute decoupling in 2014, whereas the Asian countries only experienced weak relative decoupling. The study is based on four theories; The Environmental Kuznets curve, Tapio’s Decoupling model Theory, Rostow’s Stage of Growth Theory and the Ecological Modernization Theory. The findings, together with the theories, show that improved technology, together with implementations of international policies, can have positive effects on environmental changes.

La thèse effectue une revue de la littérature scientifique sur la Cour dans le processus d’intégration juridique, en classant les différentes positions selon qu’ils définissent le rôle de la Cour comme réactif ou pro-actif. En faisant cette revue de la littérature, cinq facteurs sont mis en exergue pour ce qui concerne la problématique de l’autonomie de la Cour, qui feront l’objet d’une analyse approfondie dans la suite de la thèse :

I) Limites inhérentes à l’interprétation juridique des Traités tels qu’ils se retrouvent dans les règles institutionnalisées du raisonnement de la Cour ;

II) L’interaction, au niveau européen, entre la Cour et les autres institutions ;

III) Les pressions et les stratégies d’influence des Etats membres vis-à-vis de la Cour comme agent de leurs préférences ;

IV) La dépendance structurelle de la Cour supranationale vis-à-vis ses interlocuteurs judiciaires au niveau national ;

V) Le degré d’obéissance que les appareils administratifs et exécutifs des Etats membres démontrent vis-à-vis la jurisprudence de la Cour.

Par rapport à ces facteurs, et leur importance relative dans la détermination de la ligne d’action de la Cour de Justice, la thèse évalue les changements et les défis auxquels est soumise la fonction de la Cour de justice au niveau de l’Union européenne, en particulier par rapport à l’environnement de plus en plus critique ou évolue la trajectoire jurisprudentielle de la Cour par rapport aux acteurs politiques et juridiques, l’érosion du caractère sui generis du droit communautaire dans le contexte du droit international, le rôle de plus en plus affiché des cours nationales, et le contexte institutionnel dans lequel se trouve à agir cette juridiction.
Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales
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Thesis (LLM)--University of Stellenbosch, 1999.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis deals with the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) between the European Union and the Republic of South Africa, which was concluded in October 1999. In particular, the agreement is analysed in the light of the negotiating process between the parties, the contents of the agreement, the applicability of WTO law and the compatibility of the agreement with it and the Port and Sherry Agreement. Since the EU emphasised its aim to commence economic and development cooperation with other African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries on a reciprocal basis during the negotiations for a successor of the Lomé Convention, the TDCA between the EU and South Africa had to be seen as a "pilot project" for future cooperation agreements between countries at different levels of development. The TDCA between the EU and South Africa is therefore not only very important for the two concerned parties, but could serve as an example for further negotiations between the EU and other ACP countries. Thus the purpose of this thesis is to examine the TDCA between the EU and South Africa from a wider global perspective. The thesis is divided into six Chapters: The first Chapter provides an introduction to the circumstances under which the negotiations between the EU and South Africa commenced. It deals briefly with the economic situation in South Africa during the apartheid era and presents reasons why the parties wanted to enter into bilateral negotiations. The introductory part furthermore presents an overview of the contents of the thesis. The second chapter contains a detailed description of the negotiating process that took place between the parties and shows why it took 43 months and 21 rounds of negotiations to reach a deal. South Africa's partial accession to the Lomé Convention and the conclusion of separate agreements such as the Wine and Spirits Agreement, are also analysed. Chapter three presents the various components of the TOCA and illustrates what the negotiators achieved. This chapter on the TOCA concludes with an evaluation of the Agreement and shows the potential benefits to South Africa and the EU. Since the Agreement had to satisfy international rules, the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and TradelWorld Trade Organisation (GATTIWTO) were of major importance. The EC Treaty, however, does not contain any provision that indicates whether, or how, an international agreement like the GATTIWTO penetrates the Community legal order. In Chapter four, accordingly, questions are raised regarding the extent to which the bilateral agreement between South Africa and the EU was influenced by the GATTIWTO provisions and how these rules were incorporated into the agreement. Furthermore, since the parties agreed on the establishment of a free trade area, this chapter deals with the question of in how far the TOCA is in line with Article XXIV GATT. In addition to the GATT provisions, the TOCA is also affected by the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). Therefore Chapter five deals with TRIPs in connection with the TOCA. The use of the terms "Port" and "Sherry" as the major stumbling block to the conclusion of the TOCA is analysed more closely. The final part, namely Chapter six, provides a summary of the results of the investigation. Furthermore, a conclusion is provided with regard to the question of whether the TOeA can be seen as an example for further trade relations between the EU and other ACP countries.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is gerig op die Handels-, Ontwikkelings- en Samewerkingsooreenkoms (TDGA) tussen die Europese Unie (EU) en die Republiek van Suid Afrika wat in Oktober 1999 gesluit is. Die ooreenkoms word veral in die lig van die onderhandelingsproses tussen die partye, die inhoud van die ooreenkoms, die toepaslikheid van Wêreldhandelsorganisasiereg en die versoenbaarheid daarvan met die ooreenkoms en die Port en Sjerrie-ooreenkoms ontleed. Aangesien die EU sy oogmerk van wederkerige ekonomiese en ontwikkelings-gerigte samewerking met ander lande in Afrika en die Karibiese en Stille Oseaan-Eilande gedurende die onderhandelings vir 'n opvolger van die Lomé Konvensie beklemtoon het, moes die ooreenkoms tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika as 'n "loodsprojek" vir toekomstige samewerkingsooreenkomste tussen lande wat op verskillende vlakke van onwikkeling is, gesien word. Die Handels-, Ontwikkelings- en Samewerkingsooreenkoms tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika is dus nie net baie belangrik vir die betrokke partye nie, maar dit kan ook as 'n voorbeeld vir verdere onderhandelings tussen die EU en lande van Afrika en die Karibiese- en Stille Oseaan-Eilande dien. Die doel van dié tesis is om die Handels-, Ontwikkelings- en Samewekingsooreenkoms tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika vanuit 'n meer globale perspektief te beskou. Die tesis is in ses Hoofstukke ingedeel: Die eerste hoofstuk bied 'n inleiding tot die omstandighede waaronder die onderhandelings tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika begin het. Dit behandel die Suid- Afrikaanse ekonomiese situasie onder apartheid kortliks en toon hoekom die partye tweesydige onderhandelings wou aanknoop. Verder bied die inleidende deel 'n oorsig oor die inhoud van die tesis. Die tweede hoofstuk bevat 'n gedetailleerde beskrywing van die onderhandelingsproses wat tussen die partye plaasgevind het en toon aan waarom dit drie-en-veertig maande geduur het en een-en-twintig onderhandelingsrondtes gekos het om die saak te beklink. Suid-Afrika se gedeeltelike toetrede tot die Lomé Konvensie en die sluit van aparte ooreenkomste soos die Port- en Sjerrieooreenkoms word ook ontleed. Die daaropvolgende hoofstuk bespreek die verskillende komponente van die Handels-, Ontwikkelings- en Samewerkingsooreenkoms en toon wat die onderhandelaars bereik het. Hierdie hoofstuk oor die Ooreenkoms sluit af met 'n evaluering daarvan en dui die potensiële voordele van die Ooreenkoms vir Suid- Afrika en die EU aan. Aangesien die Ooreenkoms internasionale reëls moes tevrede stel, was die voorskrifte van die Algemene Ooreenkoms oor Tariewe en Handel (GATT) van uiterste belang. Die EG-verdrag bevat egter geen voorskrif wat aandui óf, of hoé, 'n internasionale ooreenkoms soos GATTNVTO die regsorde van die Europese Gemeenskap binnedring nie. Die vraag oor in hoeverre die tweesydige ooreenkoms tussen Suid-Afrika en die EU deur die GATTIWTO voorskrifte beïnvloed is, en oor hoe hierdie reëls in die ooreenkoms opgeneem is, word dus in Hoofstuk vier aangeraak. Aangesien die partye ooreengekom het om 'n vrye handeisarea tot stand te bring, behandel hierdie hoofstuk ook die vraag oor in hoeverre die TOGA met Artikel XXIV GATT strook. Tesame met die GATT-voorskrifte word die TOGA ook deur die Ooreenkoms ten opsigte van Handelsverwante Aspekte van Intellektuele Eiendomsreg (TRIPs) geraak. Hoofstuk vyf behandel daarom hierdie aspek ten opsigte van die TOGA. Die gebruik van die terme "Port" en "Sjerrie" as die vernaamste struikelblok tot die sluiting van die TOG-ooreenkoms word ook deegliker ontleed. Die laaste gedeelte, naamlik Hoofstuk ses, bied 'n opsomming van die resultate van die ondersoek. Verder word 'n gevolgtrekking voorsien ten opsigte van vraag of die TOGA as 'n voorbeeld vir verdere handelsverwantskappe tussen die EU en ander lande in Afrika en die Karibiese en Stille Oseaan-eilande beskou kan word.

The present thesis suggests that judicial interaction can benefit constructive solutions of concrete human rights problems as a specific way of integrating European human rights protection. This affirmation is substantiated by case studies examining the interaction of the European Court of Human Rights with the UK House of Lords and Supreme Court on the one hand and with the German Federal Constitutional Court on the other. Yet, the manner in which the courts proceed in their interaction, notably in view of their potentially conflictual stances, can deflect from the concentration on constructively solving the substantive human rights problem with which the courts are confronted. Accordingly, the courts might be inclined to preserve the status quo of their initial positions and to resort to a mere compromise between the different interests involved.

This thesis identifies two major factors in the courts’ reasoning that inhibit the fruitful discussion of the substantive human rights questions brought up by the cases: the reference to “culture” and the focus on their institutional relationship with the balancing of possibly conflicting interests. By way of analysing practical cases against a legal- and political-theoretical backdrop, this work develops how these two factors contribute to the obstruction of a constructive interaction between the courts and to the shielding of controversial views from being discussed and challenged. In response, also by reference to the concrete practice of the courts, this thesis puts forward an approach to the interaction which avoids this inhibiting effect and therefore allows for a comprehensive, deep and critical discussion on how to solve the specific human rights problems raised by the cases./La présente thèse soutient que l’interaction judiciaire peut bénéficier à des solutions constructives des problèmes concrets de droits de l’homme comme une forme spécifique d’intégration de la protection européenne des droits de l’homme. Cette affirmation est corroborée par des études de cas qui examinent l’interaction de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme avec la House of Lords et la Cour suprême du Royaume-Uni d’un côté et avec la Cour constitutionnelle fédérale de l’Allemagne de l’autre. Pourtant, la manière dont les cours procèdent dans leur interaction, notamment au vu de leurs points de vue potentiellement conflictuels, peut détourner l’attention de la solution constructive des problèmes substantiels des droits de l’homme auxquels les cours font face. En conséquence, il se peut que les cours soient susceptibles de préserver le statu quo de leurs positions initiales et d’avoir recours à un simple compromis entre les différents intérêts en cause.

Cette thèse identifie deux facteurs majeurs dans le raisonnement des cours qui entravent la discussion fructueuse des questions substantielles soulevées par les cas :la référence à la « culture » et la concentration sur leur relation institutionnelle avec le balancement des intérêts possiblement conflictuels. Au moyen de l’analyse des cas pratiques sur le fond de la théorie juridique et politique, ce travail fait ressortir comment ces deux facteurs contribuent à l’obstruction d’une interaction constructive entre les cours et à la protection des opinions controversées contre leur discussion et défi. En réponse, également en se fondant sur la pratique concrète des cours, cette thèse avance une approche quant à l’interaction qui évite cet effet inhibant et, par conséquent, permet une discussion complète, profonde et critique de comment résoudre les problèmes spécifiques de droits de l’homme posés par les cas.

Doctorat en Sciences juridiques
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Mestrado em Economia Internacional
O trabalho tem como objectivo caracterizar as relações entre a União Europeia (UE) e os países mediterrânicos num contexto mais actual, entre 1995 – desde o Processo de Barcelona - e 2005 no contexto do multilateralismo e do regionalismo. Pretende-se descrever os avanços conseguidos em termos de política mediterrânica da UE ao nível comercial e os entraves ao aprofundar das relações entre as duas regiões, bem como fazer um balanço dos dez anos de Barcelona. Os esforços para relançar a Parceria feitos a partir de 2005 também serão tratados. O trabalho fará também uma abordagem às relações entre Portugal e os países mediterrânicos.
This paper pretends to characterize the relationship between the European Union and the Mediterranean partners between 1995, year of the Barcelona Process, to 2005 in the context of multilateralism and regionalism. The objective is to describe the evolution of the trade relations and to make a balance of the ten years of the Barcelona Process. The EU’s new strategies to re-launch the partnership will also be treated. The paper will show the differences between the two regions and between the Mediterranean countries themselves. The relations between Portugal and the Mediterranean countries will also be treated.

The diploma thesis describes accession of Croatia and Macedonia to the European union. It analysis their economic situation in context of comparison with EU member states. The information about competitiveness are brought. The goal of the thesis is to clarify readiness of both countries for integration within the EU. Their economy and competitiveness will be evaluated. Integration process is described from two point of view: European union as well as Croatia and Macedonia. There is overview of actual status and negotiation progress of both countries on their way to the EU.

Magistro baigiamajame darbe išanalizuoti trys ES ir Viduržemio jūros pakrantės Artimųjų Rytų regiono šalių bendradarbiavimo etapai, remiantis politinėmis teorijomis nurodytos neefektyvų bendradarbiavimą įtakojusios priežastys ir pateikti siūlymai kaip ateityje užtikrinti efektyvų bendradarbiavimą. Pirmoje dalyje analizuojamos dvi politinės teorijos – patobulinto autoritarizmo ir realizmo –, kurios šiame darbe naudojamos kaip teorinė prieiga neefektyvaus bendradarbiavimo tarp ES ir Viduržemio jūros pakrantės Artimųjų Rytų šalių priežastims tirti ir paaiškinti. Antroje dalyje atskirai nagrinėjami ES ir Viduržemio jūros pakrantės Artimųjų Rytų regiono šalių trys bendradarbiavimo etapai: 1) Nuo 1995 m. iki 2004 m. Barselonos procesas; 2) nuo 2004 m. iki 2008 m. Europos kaimynystės politika; ir 3) nuo 2008 m. Viduržemio jūros regiono valstybių sąjunga. Šioje dalyje kritiškai vertinama ES bendradarbiavimo politika, išskiriami teigiami ir neigiami aspektai bei nurodomos neefektyvaus bendradarbiavimo priežastys.
Master’s work analyses three stages of co-operation between the European Union and the Mediterranean countries of the Middle East, indicates reasons for ineffective cooperation by using political theories and presents suggestions for achieving effective cooperation in the future. Political theories of authoritarian upgrading and realism that are used as theoretical framework for indicating and explaining reasons for ineffective cooperation between the European Union and the Mediterranean countries of the Middle East are presented in the first part of this work. Three stages of cooperation between the European Union and the Mediterranean countries of the Middle East: 1) From 1995 until 2004 the Barselona Process; 2) from 2004 until 2008 European Neighborhood Policy; 3) from 2008 Union for the Mediterranean are presented in the second part of this work. Critical view of the EU policies as well as its positive and negative aspects, and reasons for ineffective cooperation are also presented in this part.

Le contrôle juridictionnel de la coopération intergouvernementale dans l'Union européenne a longtemps fait difficulté. Initialement, la mise à l'écart du juge a conditionné le recours à cette coopération organisée "dans" l'Union. Pourtant, chaque avancée des traités a entraîné un progrès du juge de l'Union et, dès l'origine, la coopération a donné lieu à la formation d'une jurisprudence significative. La coopération intergouvernementale dans l'Union constitue un terrain privilégié d'investigation, susceptible de contribuer à enrichir l'étude d'un processus, celui de la juridictionnalisation de l'Union. Loin de stériliser cette hypothèse, le traité de Lisbonne l'a confirmée et valorisée. L'analyse de la jurisprudence révèle l'existence d'un modèle de contrôle juridictionnel de la coopération intergouvernementale dans l'Union. Celui-ci repose sur le principe d'un contrôle. Forme d'aboutissement du processus, dont elle permet de saisir l'implantation et la portée, l'admission du principe au niveau constitutionnel marque aussi une nouvelle étape dans ce processus. Le juge de l'Union progresse au sein d'un système de contrôle, composé du juge national et de la Cour européenne des droits de l'Homme. Les interactions entre juges sont essentielles pour comprendre l'évolution de l'office du juge de l'Union. S'il est classique d'attendre d'un juge constitutionnel qu'il régule le système institutionnel et qu'il assure la protection des droits fondamentaux, les exigences matérielles et opérationnelles de l'action intergouvernementale contribuent au déploiement d'une fonction juridictionnelle ordinaire. Ces deux axes de travail, principe et fonctions, jettent un éclairage d'ensemble sur le modèle en construction et permettent d'appréhender dans toute sa complétude le processus de juridictionnalisation de la coopération intergouvernementale dans l'Union
During a long time, the judicial control of the intergovernmental cooperation in the European Union remained a difficulty. Initially, the sideline of the judge conditioned the use of this cooperation, organised “in” the European Union. However, each step forward of the Treaties led to a progress of the judge of the Union and, from the very beginning, cooperation has resulted in the creation of a significant jurisprudence. Indeed, intergovernmental cooperation in the European Union constitutes a privileged field for investigation, which may contribute to enrich the study of a process, the process of judicialization of the European Union. Away from sterilizing this hypothesis, it was eventually confirmed and valued by the Lisbon Treaty. The analyse of the jurisprudence concerning the common foreign and security policy and the police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters reveals the existence of a model of judicial control over the intergovernmental cooperation in the European Union. This model is based on the principle of control. The admission of the principle, at the constitutional level, is a form of outcome of the process; it allows understanding the establishment and the extent of the process, as well as it materializes a new step in this process. The European judge evolves in a system of control, constituted by the national Court and the European Court of Human Rights. The judges’ interactions are essential in order to understand the evolution of the role of the European Union judge. Although it appears classical to expect from a constitutional judge that he rules the institutional system and that he ensures the protection of fundamental rights, the intergovernmental action material and operational requirements contribute to the deployment of an ordinary judicial function. These two axes of research, principle and functions, project a comprehensive highlight on the model under construction, and allow apprehending, in its entirety, the process of judicialization of the intergovernmental cooperation in the European Union

La recherche menée dans cette thèse traite du discours de l'Union européenne sur l'espace judiciaire européen entre 1996 et 1999. En convoquant l'analyse du discours et la lexicométrie dans un cadre théorique de la sémantique argumentative, elle analyse le sens des mots autour de l'expression « espace de liberté, de sécurité et de justice ». L'objectif est de définir comment s'élabore la réappropriation de valeurs universelles au profit du discours et de l'identité européenne véhiculée par les procédés argumentatifs utilisés pour représenter l'espace judiciaire européen. Le contexte politique et les théories linguistiques de la méthode d'analyse exposés, cette thèse porte sur les conditions de communication du discours et de sa particularité sémantique, en montrant qu'il construit une identité en triade renvoyant aux trois valeurs de son emblème triptyque (« liberté, sécurité et justice ») : les institutions, la criminalité organisée et les citoyens. Elle révèle les indices linguistiques de cette construction identitaire avec ses enjeux politiques et de légitimation en introduisant la notion de « normalisation discursive ». Celle-ci adopte un schéma linguistique très marqué conduisant à la mise en œuvre d'un processus de « manipulation argumentative » défini et démontré dans ce travail. Les résultats illustrent que la normalisation et la manipulation engendrent une circularité du discours reposant sur le conflit de deux orientations discursives : celle d'un discours sécuritaire et celle d'un discours sur l'État de droit et la démocratie.

Cette thèse étudie la contribution assez complexe du partenariat euro-méditerranéen au soft powerde l’UE. Nous avons procédé à l’examen de l’articulation entre les objectifs, les instruments, lesprogrammes, les accords et l’efficacité de l’action de l’Euromed. Il ne s’agit pas d’évaluer lepartenariat en tant que tel mais plutôt son utilisation par l’Union européenne comme instrument desoft power pour instaurer une démocratie libérale dans les pays sud-méditerranéens. Les quatreaspects fondamentaux de la démocratie libérale ont été donc examinés. Dans le domaineéconomique, il y eu des améliorations économiques dans les pays sud-méditerranéens del’Euromed, surtout par la mise en oeuvre de réformes économiques et institutionnelles, mais la zonede libre-échange prévue pour 2010 n’a pas été établie. L’intégration régionale et internationale, deces pays partenaires a connu des avancées qui demeurent encore modestes. La promotion de labonne gouvernance occupe une place centrale au sein des objectifs politiques du Partenariat.Ciblant principalement le renforcement des capacités des institutions et l’indépendance du systèmejudiciaire, les efforts menés dans le cadre de l’Euromed ont apporté une amélioration globale, maisinsuffisante, de la bonne gouvernance dans les pays sud-méditerranéens. Les actions menées dansle cadre du partenariat sur le terrain des droits de l’Homme ont mis surtout l’accent sur les questionsde sécurité, de la lutte antiterroriste et du contrôle des migrations, tandis que les questions relativesaux droits de l’Homme et à la démocratisation étaient plus ou moins passées sous silence. Mêmel’action civile est insuffisamment renforcée
This thesis studies the rather complex contribution of the Euro-Mediterraneanpartnership to the EU’s soft power. We have examined the link between the objectives,instruments, programs, agreements and effectiveness of the euro-Mediterraneanpartnership’s action. It is not a matter of evaluating the partnership as such but rather itsuse by the European Union as a soft power instrument to establish liberal democracy inthe South Mediterranean countries. The four fundamental aspects of liberal democracywere therefore examined. In the economic field, there have been economicimprovements in the southern Mediterranean countries, mainly through theimplementation of economic and institutional reforms, but the free trade areaanticipated for 2010 was not established. The regional and international integration ofthese partner countries has made some progress that remains however modest. Thepromotion of good governance is central to the political objectives of the Partnership.Focusing mainly on institutional capacity building and the independence of the judicialsystem, Euromed efforts have brought about a global but insufficient improvement ingood governance in the southern Mediterranean countries. Actions in the framework ofthe Human Rights Partnership have focused on security issues, counter-terrorism andmigration control, while human rights issues and democratization were more or lessignored. Even civil action is not sufficiently strengthened

Au niveau international, la conservation du patrimoine a fait l’objet de discussions philosophiques et pratiques considérables au cours des dernières années. La question du lien entre patrimoine et développement est abondamment évoquée, fait l’objet de convictions largement partagées mais les mécanismes qui entrent en action dans ce lien sont très mal identifiés. Etroitement intégrée aux questions environnementales, à l’aménagement rural et aux processus de régénération urbaine, la relation entre patrimoine et développement appartient tant à l’économique qu’au social et au politique. Notre recherche fait entrer les préoccupations patrimoniales dans le champ de la gouvernance locale et régionale elle s’intéresse à leur rôle dans les stratégies d’identité et dans la construction du capital social.

Où se situe le patrimoine dans les politiques de la cohésion européenne? Quels sont les objectifs de la politique de cohésion? Quelles sont les interactions entre développement, cohésion et patrimoine? Les politiques en faveur du patrimoine, actuellement appliquées, sont elles classiques? C’est-à-dire :sont-elles focalisées sur la protection et la restauration du patrimoine ;ou bien sont-elles plus complexe, en ce sens qu’elles impliquent la valorisation et l’insertion du patrimoine parmi les ressources d’un territoire, permettant à la fois d’y greffer des politiques d’emploi, des politiques commerciales et des politiques de cohésion sociale ?Actuellement quelles sont les limites d’une mise en œuvre performante? Au final, le patrimoine a-t-il vraiment la signification et la place qu’on veut lui attribuer? Outre ce qu’ils postulent en matière de développement, les textes produits par l’UE indiquent que le patrimoine et sa valorisation sont d’habitude considérés comme éléments qui contribuent positivement à l’amélioration de la qualité de vie. Mais quelles sont les définitions qui sont actuellement disponibles? Quels sont vraiment les rapports entre toutes ses notions et leur concrétisation sur le terrain? La thèse ambitionne de contribuer à une réponse à ses questions.

Les instruments fournis dans le cadre de la politique européenne, sont extrêmement nombreux et multiformes. Une analyse est tentée afin d’évaluer l’efficacité de divers instruments disponibles de la politique de cohésion, en termes de valorisation du patrimoine et de son intégration, dans un contexte de développement local et régional. L’analyse s’effectue au travers d’études de cas. Les études de cas proposées (deux études de cas dans deux pays européens différents, la ville de Nicosie à Chypre et la ville de Xanthi en Grèce) traitent de l’espace du sud-est méditerranéen de l’U.E. La Grèce et Chypre ont été choisis en tant qu’exemples tout à fait représentatifs d’un point de vue géographique mais également d’un point de vue Européen. (Grèce:U.E 3 et Chypre: UE 12)

Le cas de Xanthi, Grèce, est le plus développé. Notre étude le présente comme un résultat globalement positif du rôle des politiques et des programmes de l’ U.E. Les mécanismes locaux d’utilisation des opportunités offertes par les financements européens sont expliqués. On montre comment l’identification, la réhabilitation, la valorisation d’un patrimoine spécifique à la région et la polarisation des politiques de développement sur ce patrimoine ont entraîné d’importants changements dans le comportement de la population vis-à-vis de son territoire. Outre un réinvestissement massif des groupes sociaux moyens et supérieurs dans le cœur urbain, on a pu constater une forte croissance de toutes les activités tertiaires et l’émergence d’une vie locale extrêmement dynamique. Tant la démographie que le nombre d’emplois montrent une courbe ascendante. Si l’on ne peut pas faire abstraction de phénomènes qui se rapprochent de la gentrification, on doit admettre que l’évolution des prix des immeubles et du foncier, n’a pas eu des conséquences identiques à celles qui sont observées en Europe occidentale. On peut semble–t-il dans ce cas (proche d’autres cas voisins dans les petites villes grecques) parler d’amélioration de la qualité de la vie.
Doctorat en Sciences
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La tesis se encarga de analizar, por un lado, la integración y el desarrollo de las nuevas tecnologías en la Administración de Justicia; y, por otro, los parámetros que constituyen la validez y eficacia del documento electrónico.
La primera cuestión se centra en la configuración de los Sistemas de Información de la Oficina Judicial y del Ministerio Fiscal, así como de la informatización de los Registros Civiles, donde el art. 230 LOPJ es la pieza clave. Se estudian sus programas, aplicaciones, la videoconferencia, los ficheros judiciales y las redes de telecomunicaciones que poseen la cobertura de la firma electrónica reconocida, donde cobran gran relevancia los convenios de colaboración tecnológica. La digitalización de las vistas quizá sea una de las cuestiones con más trascendencia, teniendo en cuenta que el juicio es el acto que culmina el proceso. Aunque no todos los proyectos adoptados en el ámbito de la e.justicia se han desarrollado de forma integral, ni han llegado a la totalidad de los órganos judiciales. El objetivo final es lograr una Justicia más ágil y de calidad, a lo cual aspira el Plan Estratégico de Modernización de la Justicia 2009-2012 aprobado recientemente.
En referencia a la segunda perspectiva, no cabe duda que el Ordenamiento jurídico y los tribunales, en el ámbito de la justicia material, otorgan plena validez y eficacia al documento electrónico. Nuestra línea de investigación se justifica porque cada vez son más los procesos que incorporan soportes electrónicos de todo tipo, ya sea al plantearse la acción o posteriormente como medio de prueba (art. 299.2 LEC). Entre otros temas examinamos el documento informático, la problemática que rodea al fax, los sistemas de videograbación y el contrato electrónico.
La tesi s'encarrega d'analitzar, per una part, la integració i el desenvolupament de les noves tecnologies dins l´Administració de Justícia; i, per l'altra, els paràmetres que constitueixen la validesa i l'eficàcia del document electrònic.
La primera qüestió es centra en la configuració dels Sistemes d´Informació de l´Oficina Judicial i del Ministeri Fiscal, així com de la informatització dels Registres Civils, on l'art. 230 LOPJ es la peça clau. S'estudien els seus programes, aplicacions, la videoconferència, el fitxers judicials i les xarxes de telecomunicacions que tenen la cobertura de la firma electrònica reconeguda, on cobren gran rellevància els convenis de col·laboració tecnològica. La digitalització de les vistes tal vegada sigui una de les qüestions amb més transcendència, tenint amb compte que el judici es l'acte que culmina el procés. Però no tots el projectes adoptats en l'àmbit de la e.justicia s'han desenvolupat d'una manera integral ni han arribat a la totalitat dels òrgans judicials. L'objectiu final es assolir una Justícia més àgil i de qualitat, al que aspira el Pla Estratègic de Modernització de la Justícia 2009-2012 aprovat recentment.
En referència a la segona perspectiva, no hi ha dubte que l´Ordenament jurídic i els tribunals, en l'àmbit de la justícia material, donen plena validesa i eficàcia al document electrònic. La nostra línia d'investigació es justifica perquè cada vegada son més el processos que incorporen suports electrònics de tot tipus, ja sigui quant es planteja l'acció o posteriorment como a medi de prova (art. 299.2 LEC). Entre altres temes examinem el document informàtic, la problemàtica que envolta al fax, els sistemes de videogravació i el contracte electrònic.
The thesis seeks to analyse, on the one hand, the integration and development of the new technologies in the Administration of Justice; and, on the other, the parameters which constitute the validity and efficiency of the electronic document.
The first question centres on the configuration of the Information Systems of the Judicial Office and the Public Prosecutor, as well as the computerisation of the Civil Registers, where the art. 230 LOPJ it's the part key. Their programmes, applications, the Video Conferencing, the judicial registers and the telecommunication networks which are covered by the recognised electronic signatures, are studied, where the agreements on technological collaboration gain great relevance. The digitalisation of evidence might perhaps be one of the questions with most consequence, bearing in mind that the judgment is the act by which the process is culminated. Although not all the projects adopted within the compass of e.justice have developed completely nor have reached all the judicial organs. The final objective is to achieve an agile, quality Justice, to which the recently approved Strategic Plan for the Modernisation of Justice aspires.
With reference to the second perspective, there is no doubt that the juridical Ordinance and the tribunals within the compass of material justice grant full validity and efficacy to the electronic document. Our line of investigation is justified because there are more and more processes which are sustained by electronic supports of all kinds, whether it be at the establishment of the action or later, as a proof of it (art. 299.2 LEC). Amongst other things, we examine the computerised document, the problems which surround the fax, the systems for video recording and the electronic contract.

Defence data: 28 November 2017; Examining Board: Professor Loïc Azoulai, University of Paris (Supervisor); Professor Myriam Benlolo Carabot, Paris Nanterre University; Professor Jean-Yves Chérot, Aix-Marseille University; Professor Urška Šadl, European University Institute
The thesis is awarded the Pierre-Henri Teitgen Prize 2018
By introducing the terms “citizens of the Union”, the drafters of the Maastricht Treaty inscribed a new concept in European Union law. The denomination of the new concept coincides with that of national legal concepts and of a concept widely discussed in political theory. More than twenty years later, the legal concept of citizenship of the Union has been widely constructed by the case law of the European Court of Justice. This case law then offers a particularly rich field of study for the development of a new perspective on judicial activity. My thesis proposes an investigation on the judge and the work of legal concepts; that is, an investigation on the practice of the judge – the work on concepts – and on the role of concepts in legal reasoning – the concepts at work. This inquiry should be distinguished from classical studies on the judge, mainly dealing with interpretation, as well as from works focusing on power relations between legal actors. In this thesis, I argue that EU law must be understood in its own terms, through an inquiry on the conceptual practices of the judge and I propose a non-formalist account of legal forms.

Defence date: 21 May 2018
Examining Board: Prof. Giorgio Monti, EUI (EUI Supervisor) ; Prof. Urska Šadl, EUI ; Prof. Inge Govaere, College of Europe, Bruges ; Prof. Alison Jones, King's College, London
This PhD thesis deals with IP-competition conflicts and how the EU Courts have addressed them over time. It seeks to answer the question of how the reasoning of EU Courts in these cases has been affected by three crucial evolutionary moments in EU law: (1) the Europeanization of IP law (2) the modernization of EU competition law and (3) the elevation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union to a primary source of EU law. The first two chapters provide the theoretical framework of the thesis. The first chapter provides a detailed overview of the three crucial evolutionary moments in EU law mentioned above. The second chapter provides an overview of theories about the legal reasoning of EU Courts and about the different approaches that the courts have adopted when deciding IP-competition conflicts. Five such approaches, or judicial lenses, are identified: an economics, a conflict of laws, a conflict of competences, a constitutional and a private law approach. It is shown that these five different approaches can be linked to the three evolutionary moments at the IP-competition interface in EU law. Chapters three to five trace the theoretical insights from the first two chapters in three case studies on specific business methods having given rise to IP-competition conflicts before EU Courts: (i) selective distribution systems, (ii) digital platforms and restrictions of access, and (iii) lock-in strategies on aftermarkets, in particular in the online environment. The case studies analyse how these comparable factual situations of IP-competition conflicts have been treated on the one hand under EU competition law and on the other under EU IP law. In each case study, the legal reasoning is identified and compared between EU competition and IP law. The main finding in the case studies is that EU Courts treat the spheres of EU competition law and IP law as wholly separate. This has led to quite diverging approaches in comparable cases of IP-competition conflicts depending on whether the cases are brought under EU competition law or IP law, jeopardizing the systemic coherence of EU law and disturbing the CJEU’s dialogue with national ii courts. This situation is not sustainable. In an economic environment where the EU’s economies are increasingly depending on e-commerce and digital assets often protected by IP, IP-competition conflicts are bound to increase. To ensure a legal environment that provides legal certainty and equal conditions for firms to thrive across EU Member States without hurting consumers, a more coherent and improved methodological guidance on how to address IP-competition conflicts is needed. The aim of this thesis is to provide a first step in this direction.

Defence date: 9 October 2006
Supervisor: Prof. Jacques Ziller
Awarded the Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the best comparative law doctoral thesis, 2007.
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017
This dissertation examines a burgeoning policy area of the EU - the regulation of cross border civil and commercial litigation. The dissertation analyses the EU's specific legislative measures regulating civil procedure and assesses their impact on litigation, particularly due process rights. The policy is then placed in the broader contexts of European integration and the international codification of civil procedure.

Defence date: 13 June 2018
Examining Board: Professor Deirdre Curtin, European University Institute (Supervisor) ; Professor Miguel Poiares Maduro, European University Institute ; Professor Paul Craig, St. John's College, Oxford ; Professor Herwig Hofmann, University of Luxembourg
The thesis examines how EU courts have addressed the rule of law challenges of composite procedures. Composite procedures are pervasive administrative processes which involve joint decision-making by national and EU authorities. Such procedures fit poorly into the EU’s traditional model of administrative law, EU executive federalism, which is designed for an administrative system where decisional power is exercised separately by the two levels of administration. This mismatch would make it difficult to observe several key requirements of the rule of law in EU administrative law – such as the right to be heard, the right to a reasoned decision, judicial protection, and the control of legality. The thesis argues that EU courts have crafted a series of unprecedented implicit principles that specifically aim at ensuring the observance of rule of law requirements in composite decision-making. In doing so, EU case law has departed from the old doctrine of EU executive federalism. This was however not an easy transition. Indeed, since the EU’s foundational period, EU executive federalism was considered to be a constitutional doctrine, i.e., to immediately flow from the Treaties. Given the almost complete lack of references to administrative issues in the Treaties, this reading was entirely question-begging. Its espousal in the case law is explained in the dissertation as the likely result of a shared federalist conception of the European Union and of the administrative order created under its aegis. The thesis further argues that, just as the doctrine of EU executive federalism, the judge-made law of composite procedures relies on a series of assumptions on the relations between national and EU administration. The principles of composite decision-making do not treat national and EU authorities as two strictly separate spheres of power. Rather, they handle the two levels as a single, integrated administration, where national authorities are treated as an extension of the Commission – as the EU administration’s ancillary bureaucracy.

Defence date: 23 May 2012
Examining Board: Professor Adrienne Heritier (EUI/RSCAS) (Supervisor); Professor Lisa Conant (Univ. Denver); Professor Bruno De Witte (formely EUI/Univ. Maastricht); Professor Daniel Sabbagh (CERI, Sciences Po, Paris).
First made available online on 7 November 2019
Ten years after its enthusiastic adoption in 2000, the Race Equality Directive (RED) - a deeply innovative and indeed overall far-reaching piece of equal treatment legislation – seems to be still little enforced at the level of European courts. Why? Neither a sudden retrenchment of race discrimination in Europe, nor the inaptitude of the policy to generate European Union (EU)-law litigation, can easily explain the scarce signs of the extensive judicial enforcement that characterise other EU equal treatment policies, such as those on EU-nationality, gender and age. This study zooms in on the realm of domestic politics and judicial enforcement to inquire into cross-sectional and cross-national variations in the implementation of EU equal treatment policy. To do so, I rely upon analytical tools developed by three branches of EU studies scholarship — Europeanization, compliance and judicial politics literature — and I apply them to the yet unexplored domain of race equality policy. Tracing the process of transposition, in the first place, and analysing case law databases and expert interviews with legal practitioners, in the second place, I inquire into compliance and judicial enforcement in three EU countries: France, Germany and Italy. The findings of this comparative study confirm a very limited judicial enforcement of the RED, especially as domestic patterns of adversarial litigation in the domain of race equality are concerned. I explain this divergence looking at the ‗containment‘ action that domestic policymakers may exert on directives at the moment of transposition. In the case of the RED, this action crucially impinged on aspects likely to determine enforcement dynamics, such as those elements of the process regulating access to judicial redress. This work shows that in the case of a policy measure such as the RED, focused on individual judicial redress and mainly targeted towards disadvantaged end-users, the harmonization of some process elements is crucial to determining converging implementation dynamics. If Europeanization is contained at the moment of transposition, judicial enforcement can be seriously hindered at the national as well as the supranational levels even in presence of domestic legal mobilization. In addition to that, the thesis shows how limited raceconsciousness is to be found in contemporary European jurisprudence as well as in the claims filed by antidiscrimination law applicants.

Defence date: 08 February 2008
Examining Board: Rainer Bauböck (EUI), Richard Bellamy (University College, London), Fritz Kratochwil (EUI) (Supervisor), Antje Wiener (Univ. Bath)
This thesis asks what kind of conception(s) of citizenship that have emerged over time within the European integration process. The starting point for this research aim is a critique of the existing literature on European citizenship. Research on European citizenship has tended to fall into a sceptical strand relying on the nation-state model of citizenship (often called the no demos position) or a more visionary strand which interprets the developments of rights on the EU level as a postnational disconnection of citizenship from nationality. These normative strands have tended to translate the question of 'what should it be?' into factual statements on what citizenship in the EU actually is. This thesis has sought to overcome this through a theoretically informed, yet empirically oriented study of how conceptions of European citizenship have developed. Theoretically, the thesis eschews the typical model approach of citizenship studies. It does so by focusing on citizenship as a status of individuals constituted through four analytically distinct, yet potentially inter-related dimensions: membership, rights, participation and identity. This provides a dynamic theory of citizenship where the appearance of and relationship between dimensions is not settled a priori, but rather needs to be scrutinised in practice. Empirically, therefore, these dimensions are utilised in order to ascertain how citizenship has been conceived on two levels of EU integrative politics. The first level is practices of policy- and law-making, starting with the founding treaties of the 1950s and ending with the post-Maastricht debates on Union citizenship. The second level is three instances of constitution-making importance within European integration: the Spinelli Project of the European Parliament, the Maastricht Process and the Convention on the Future of Europe. Methodologically, the analytical assessment of European citizenship discourse is provided on the basis of a process tracing exercise geared towards highlighting the crucial junctures of appearance, consolidation, and/or change with regard to the concept of citizenship. The main conclusion is that European citizenship discourse has created a conception of transnational citizenship, rather than postnational membership. This is visible on both empirical levels. The inherent transnationalism of European citizenship is found to have been initiated already in the founding ECSC and Rome Treaties. Citizenship elements in early European integration, such as free movement, market participation and, later, membership based on nationality in a Member State, created a frame upon which ensuing conceptions of citizenship developed. There were proposals for alternative conceptions based on a stronger notion of a more free-standing European status, for instance in elections to the EP, and more radical ideas of membership through dual European and national citizenship within constitution-making instances. Such proposals did, however, not significantly alter the conception of European citizenship as articulated around the border-crossing of Member State citizens. As much as this has highlighted - against the no demos view - that issues of citizenship are not incompatible with institution building and policy-making 'beyond the nation-state', it is also clear that one cannot detect a significant dissociation of citizenship and rights from nationality, as professed by postnationalists. Citizenship has evolved - mainly within policy practices - as a significant status of individuals within European integration through a transnational 'right to have rights' in second countries. Constitution-making instances have on the whole contributed to a consolidation of the basic tenets emanating from policy practices, rather than producing radical 'constitutional moments' of EU citizenship politics. The conceptual path of European citizenship discourse has, therefore, brought forward a conception based on a core principle of 'no rights without movement'; where elements such as political rights on the European and Member State levels, personhood as an additional condition for access to rights, and residence rights have been added as a consequence of evolving policies and practices of European integration.

Defence date: 28 June 2004
Examining Board: Prof. Dr. Ulrich K. Pressus (Freie Universität Berlin) ; Prof. Dr. Franz Traxler (Universität Wien) ; Prof. Dr. Philippe C. Schmitter (EUI) ; Prof. Dr. Colin Crouch (EUI)(Supervisor)
Conferring date: 1 October 2004. First made available online on 6 December 2016
This thesis addresses two questions: first, has there emerged in Europe a system of industrial relations which crosses national boundaries? Secondly, does organised labour contribute to the process of democratisation of the European Union? Scholars have argued that the EU cannot be democratised because there is no European society as such, no European network of intermediate social institutions, no European public sphere, no European demos and no Euro-democratic citizens’ movement. This thesis has discovered evidence to the contrary.

Defence date: 13 February 1999
Examining board: Prof. Carol Harlow (London School of Economics, London) ; Prof. Yves Mény (Robert Schuman Centre, EUI) (Supervisor) ; Prof. Silvana Sciarra (Department of Law, EUI)(Co-supervisor) ; Prof. Martin Shapiro (University of California, Berkeley)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 17 January 1994
Examining board: Prof. Beate Kohler-Koch (University of Mannheim, supervisor) ; Prof. Klaus Eder (European University Institute, co-supervisor) ; Prof. Giandomenico Majone (European University Institute) ; PD Dr. Wolfgang Wessels (Institut für Europäische Politik, Bonn) ; Dr. Ole Waever (Centre for Peace and Conflict Research, Copenhagen)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 23 October 2008
Examining Board: Prof. Jacques Ziller, (European University Institute, Supervisor);Prof. Bruno de Witte, (European University Institute); Prof. Walter Van Gerven, (Professor emeritus KU Leuven, U Maastricht, U Tilburg); Judge Horstpeter Kreppel, (President of the First Chamber of the European Civil Service Tribunal)
Awarded the Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the best comparative law doctoral thesis, 2009.
First made available online 16 December 2014.
This thesis examines the principle of Member State liability for breaches of European Community law committed by a national court adjudicating at last instance as established in the European Court of Justice's ruling of September 2003 in Gerhard Köbler v. Republic of Austria (C-224/01). It focuses on the ECJ's assessment in the case of the various approaches to Member State liability for judicial breaches under the national laws of the (then) fifteen EU Member States and extends the analysis to an enlarged Europe of 27. In an attempt to verify the Court's conclusions, namely that the concept of State liability for judicial breaches constitutes a common principle that has been accepted in most EU Member States, the thesis embarks on a comparative analysis of the prevailing national legal concepts in the area of State liability for judicial breaches. The categorisation of the different systems into four groups allows for the creation of a general taxonomy of the various national approaches to the question. An in-depth analysis of one national system per category then sheds light on the general concepts of public liability in the 27 Member States. The prototypes representing the four groups are the United Kingdom, Austria, France and Belgium. Apart from the analysis of the framework and composition of the respective State liability regimes, special attention is directed to the interaction of the Köbler-principle on the Community level with the effective framework of State liability in the national prototypes. Against this background, the thesis provides a general reflection on the substantive and procedural difficulties arising in the course of the application of the Köbler-principle under each national remedial framework. In doing so, several issues are addressed, including the impact of liability à la Köbler on the principles of legal certainty and the impartiality of the judiciary, as well as the question of a possible violation of the principle of res judicata. Furthermore, the study addresses the claim that Köbler triggers the development of an indirect appellate procedure to the ECJ giving it the role of a 'quasi-final court of appeal'. In addition, the thesis seeks to unravel past and present problems of communication between the ECJ and the national supreme courts and discusses a possible change from the ECJ's traditional cooperative approach towards incompliant national supreme courts to a more assertive stance which suggests that non-compliance by the national court in question, with its obligation to make a reference for a preliminary ruling under Article 234(3) EC, might incur the liability of the Member State in question.

Defence date: 29 February 2016
Examining Board: Professor Loïc Azoulai, European University Institute; Professor Bruno De Witte, European University Institute; Professor Giuseppe Martinico, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna - Pisa; Professor Laurent Pech, Middlesex University London.
The dissertation aims at studying the historical institutional evolution of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the judicial arm of the supranational European community. The Court has been largely analysed, in the multidisciplinary field of European studies, particularly because of its central role in the process of continental integration, for the role played for the evolution of the European Union legal order. The perspective I would like to suggest and to develop in this work tries to differentiate itself by taking a somehow reverse standpoint. First, I will focus on the evolution of the Court itself, more than on the impressive evolution of the EU legal order and its judge-made nature. Naturally, this last aspect will be the background of my analysis. In this respect, I will not be much concerned with the evolution of case law, jurisprudence or the interpretative activity of the European Court but more on the structure and the organization of the Court itself, taken as an institution. Finally, I will try to develop this approach by making use of the precious insights provided by the comparative analysis of law. I will select some specific yet central aspects of the structural, organizational, institutional development of the Court in the decades since its foundation and will do this with a purpose. My aim is to show, through a comparative analysis, how the development and institutional evolution of the Court of Justice of the European Union can be considered mimetic - able to engage and somehow internalize the solicitations which came from EU Member States influences of different legal traditions (with increasing strain as the EU grew dimensionally) and responding to global challenges in relation to the increasing role of the international forms of judicial review and of the international judicial review bodies. This proved decisive, I argue, for strengthening the authority of the Court of Justice in its federal judicial architecture.

Defence date: 4 July 1997
Examining board: Prof. P.A. Messerlin, FNSP, Paris (co-supervisor); Prof. L.K. Mytelka, UNCTAD, Geneva; Prof. S. Strange, University of Warwick (supervisor); Prof. J. Zielonka, EUI, Florence
First made available online on 19 June 2017

Defence date: 5 June 2013
Examining Board: Professor Miguel Maduro, European University Institute (Supervisor) Professor Mattias Kumm, European University Institute Professor Neil Komesar, University of Wisconsin Professor Christoph Möllers, Humboldt Universität, Berlin.
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
The thesis seeks to widen our understanding of the general principle of equality within European Union law. In its approach it is theoretically ambitious yet grounded in case law analysis. After an introduction into the origins of the notion of equality, the thesis sets out to deconstruct the adjudication by the European Court of Justice as well as by selected Member State courts on some of the most pressing issues of European equality law via the means of comparative institutional analysis. More specifically, it examines the diversity of applied standards of testing by the European Court of Justice, its handling of reverse discrimination and its dealing with affirmative action. Moreover, it looks at the Austrian and German case law on reverse discrimination. Through this exercise, the thesis illustrates that the judges are in their decisions both guided by reaching a 'fair' outcome to the cases and by reflections on their ability to rule on egalitarian issues. The work describes in detail how institutional considerations inform judicial decisions in matters of equality. Building on the finding that institutional thinking influences judicial decision making, the thesis continues to ask whether this practice is desirable. Its concluding chapter argues for an adaptation of the existing equality doctrine in European Union law in order to provide judges, practitioners and academics with tools to merge institutional considerations along with legalist interpretation of equality guarantees in an open and comprehensible manner.

Defence date: 3 June 2004
Examining Board: Prof. Martin Rhodes (EUI, supervisor) ; Prof. Gráinne de Búrca (EUI, co-supervisor) ; Prof. Maurizio Ferrera (Università degli Studi di Milano) ; Prof. Jo Shaw (University of Manchester)
First made available online on 4 May 2018
Within the study of European integration, the questions of the existence of "social Europe* and the possible impact of European integration on national welfare policies continue to be most disputed. The present study aims to contribute to this scholarly discussion, questioning to what extent the European Union has institutionalised social security rights, how, and with what impact on national welfare policies. Whereas existing research either tends to investigate a process of European integration in its own right or focuses on the impact of European integration, this study employs a two-step research agenda. It attempts to bridge two layers of institutionalisation by, first, analysing the gradual development of Community Regulation 1408/71, which entitles the migrant worker/person to equal and exportable social security rights within the European Union, and, subsequently, by examining how that specific integration process has impacted on Danish and German social security policies and the organising principles behind them. In order to examine the two separate - and intertwined - layers of institutionalisation, a diachronic, process-tracing study is carried out on the basis of the argument that the effective reach, meaning and impact of Community law and policy unfolds gradually over time and through subtle steps at two levels of decisionmaking. The analysis brings into focus institutionalisation through the interaction of law and politics. The European Court of Justice has continuously interpreted the scope and content of the Regulation, and has appeared to act when politics has been absent. Judicial activism, furthering cross-border social security, has been seconded by the European Commission’s persistent attempts to set the agenda. However, the research also finds that institutionalisation has not been progressively driven towards "more Europe', but that politics at times responds, either through collective reactions or through the subsequent national implementation of supranational decisionmaking. The research findings, however, also suggest that such political response may not be the last word, since the Court, on request, may reinterpret matters. On the basis of the analysis of institutionalisation between an extensive T0 and T2, the study concludes that over time the European Union has established a social security dimension, which increasingly has impacted on and restructured the organising principles of national welfare policies, however, not in a systematic, immediate or converging wav.

Defence date: 14 June 2010
Examining Board: Prof. Bruno de Witte (European University Institute) Prof. Marise Cremona (European University Institute) Prof. H. Schneider (Maastricht University) Prof. M. Dougan (University of Liverpool)
In 2012 awarded the ‘The Jacqueline Suter Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in European Law’
First made available online: 24 August 2021
The Bologna Process is a powerful reform movement, aimed at establishing a European Higher Education Area, most specifically by introducing a common standard of a three-cycle Bachelor, Master, Doctorate system for higher education degrees all over Europe. The Process is based on the non-binding Sorbonne and Bologna Declarations, and is a powerful follow-up process consisting of regular Ministerial Conferences and in-between follow-up meetings. In this sense, the Bologna Process is an important de-nationalisation of higher education. However, the strictly inter-governmental Process takes place outside the institutional framework of the European Union, even though all the EU Member States take part. Also the framework of the Council of Europe has been avoided. This exclusion of the European Organisations is remarkable, especially considering the large overlap between the subject matter of the Bologna Process and their activities. Most notably, the Bologna Process deals with diploma and study credit recognition, student and teacher mobility, research, lifelong learning, quality assurance and a European dimension in higher education, which are all well-established fields of activity of both the EU and the Council of Europe. In this way, it is argued, Bologna detracts from the large body of EU higher education law, and the – often underestimated – legal competence of the EU in higher education. Therefore, the Bologna Process can also be considered as a re-nationalisation of higher education. The Bologna Process is controversial. Some consider Bologna to be a great success, as it has spurred an overwhelming amount of (legislative) changes in almost all European countries through voluntary convergence, whereas others oppose it for precisely this reason. This thesis provides a legal analysis of the Sorbonne and Bologna Declarations and the ensuing Process. From a European law perspective, there are several grave concerns about the way the Bologna Process was created and how it is currently operated. Using the option of operating within the EU framework, most particularly the option of a Bologna Directive, as a comparison, it is argued that with the Bologna Process the Member States have chosen to harmonise their higher education system by less accountable, less transparent, less democratic and less effective means. This is why the Bologna Process amounts to harmonisation by stealth.

Defence date: 23 April 2004
Examining board: Prof. Bruno de Witte (Supervisor, European University Institute) ; Prof. Marise Cremona (Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London) ; Prof. Sasho Georgievski (University of Cyril and Methody Law School, Skopje) ; Prof. Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann (European University Institute)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 19 September 2018
Examining Board: Prof. Bruno De Witte, Maastricht University/EUI (Supervisor); Prof. Loïc Azoulai, Sciences Po Paris; Associate Prof. Jacco Bomhoff, LSE; Prof. Guillaume Tusseau, Science Po Paris
The author was awarded the Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the best doctoral thesis in the field of comparative law (June 2019)
Proportionality increasingly dominates legal imagination. Initially conceived of as a principle that regulates police action, today it is progressively established as an advanced tool of liberal constitutional science. Its spread, accompanied by a global paradigm of constitutional rights, appears to be an irresistible natural development. This thesis was inspired by the intuition that even though courts and lawyers around the world reason more and more in proportionality terms, proportionality can mean very different things in different contexts, even within the same legal system. While the relevant literature has paid little attention to differences in the use of proportionality, identifying the local meanings of proportionality is crucial to making sense of its spread, to assessing its success, and to appraising the possibility of convergence between legal systems. Through an in-depth study and comparison of the use of proportionality by legal actors in France, England and Greece, this work shows that the local meanings of proportionality are not simply deviant applications of a global model. Instead, they reflect the legal cultures in which they evolve, local paths of cultural change and local patterns of Europeanisation. La proportionnalité a progressivement pris une place centrale dans l’imaginaire juridique. Initialement conçue comme un principe qui régit l’utilisation des pouvoirs de police, elle est aujourd’hui considérée comme un outil avancé de science constitutionnelle. Sa généralisation, accompagnée par le paradigme du droit constitutionnel global, est perçue comme irrésistible et naturelle. Cette recherche a été guidée par l’intuition que, même si les juristes à travers le monde raisonnent de plus en plus en termes de proportionnalité, celle-ci peut avoir des sens très différents, et ce, même au sein d’un seul système juridique. Les différentes utilisations du langage de la proportionnalité sont rarement étudiées en tant que tels. Pour autant, l’identification des sens locaux de la proportionnalité est cruciale si l’on veut comprendre sa propagation, apprécier son succès et évaluer les possibilités de convergence entre systèmes juridiques. Ce travail consiste en une étude approfondie et comparative de l’utilisation du langage de la proportionnalité parmi les acteurs juridiques en France, en Angleterre et en Grèce. Il cherche à montrer que les sens locaux de la proportionnalité ne sont pas simplement des applications imparfaites d’un modèle global. Au contraire, ils reflètent les cultures au sein desquelles ils évoluent, des chemins d’évolution culturelle propres à chaque système et des trajectoires locales d’européanisation.