European and Comparative Public Law
The European and Comparative Public Law Unit brings together a group of researchers working in several general and specialised fields of EU Law and both UK and Comparative Public Law.
As an integral part of LTAP, the Unit aims to promote individual and collaborative research and study in such areas of expertise, to promote excellence in the teaching of those subjects, to provide supervision to doctoral students who undertake research in the aforementioned fields, and to offer a forum for public debate and engagement with a range of national and European institutions, within and beyond academia.
The Unit’s main research themes include, but are not limited to:
- Citizenship and statelessness in the EU
- European civil justice
- EU Foreign and Security Policy
- Multi-Level Governance in the EU, the role of sub-national authorities in the EU and subsidiarity
- Spiritual and moral heritage of the EU
- EU immigration law and policies
Members of the Unit publish regularly in highly reputable peer-reviewed journals including European Constitutional Law Review, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, European Public Law, Common Market Law Review, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Regional and Federal Studies inter alia.
Recent books published by our scholars include the monograph authored by Professor Carlo Panara, The Sub-National Dimension of the EU: A Legal Study of Multilevel Governance (Springer, 2015), the monograph authored by Dr Matilde Ventrella, the monograph by Dr Mary Guy, Competition Policy and Healthcare - Frontiers In Insurance-Based and Taxation-Funded Systems (Intersentia 2019), Smuggling Migrants by Sea: EU Legal Framework and Future Perspectives (Vandeplas Publishing, 2018), the collection edited by Dr Emmanuel Guinchard, Rome I and Rome II in Practice (Intersentia, 2020), and the textbook by Alexandra Pimor (with Tony Storey), Unlocking EU Law (Routledge, 5th edition, 2018).
The Unit partners with organisations such as the British Association of Comparative Law (BACL) and the Academic Association for Contemporary European Studies.
Academic staff
Dr Tasnim Ahmed. Research interests and supervision include: European Union Law; ADR and Property Law
Dr Jules Bradshaw. Research interests and supervision include: Citizenship; Statelessness; Identity, Inclusion and belonging; Citizenship models and modelling, International Human Rights Law; Law and Literature.
Dr Emmanuel Guinchard. Research interests include: European Civil Justice, Private International Law, International and Comparative Dispute Resolution, and World Trade Organisation Law.
Professor Carlo Panara. Research interests and supervision include: constitutional aspects of the European Union and their impact on national constitutions; intersection of law and politics and comparative constitutional law; EU multi-level governance; regional and local authorities in the EU; political and legal implications of Brexit for the EU and the UK.
Dr Adam Snow. Research Interests and supervision include: Road Safety; Road Traffic Regulation; ANPR and Road Policing Technology; Law abidance, Procedural Justice and Compliance; Criminal Law and Criminal Justice.
Dr Matilde Ventrella. Research interests include: EU Police and Judicial Cooperation against Cross-border Crimes; Immigration; Human Trafficking.
Dr Gary Wilson. Research interests and supervision include: the United Nations and Collective Security; Use of Force (jus ad bellum); Self-Determination and Secession; International Human Rights Law; Constitutional Reform.
Dr Paul Anderson. Research largely focuses on comparative territorial politics. He is interested in autonomy and secessionist movements, regional political parties, majority and minority nationalisms, intergovernmental relations, and the use of autonomy as a tool of conflict resolution.
Dr Mary Guy. Research interests include solidarity, healthcare and welfare at national, EU, and international levels, comparative public law, competition law.
PhD Students
Paul French. Project title: Media, Fear and Islamist extremism: Would the UK public allow for counter-terrorism laws which violate human rights?
Alexandra Pimor. Project title: From De Facto to de spiritu solidarity: conceptualising the notion of the Union's ""spiritual and moral heritage"" as referenced in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights preamble, and exploring it's significance for the European Integration Process.
Alex Seddon. Project title: The Asylum Procedure and Crises of Governance.