Ongoing PhD projects
EU Legal Studies hosts and welcomes Ph.D researchers on EU Law. There are currently five ongoing Ph.D projects
Pietro Mattioli (2022) -
Supervision: Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel
Funding: ERC EUDAIMONIA
Katarzyna Aleksandra Jancewicz (2022) -
Supervision: Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel
Funding: ERC EUDAIMONIA
Valérian Fabry (2022) - The rights and obligations of taxpayers under EU customs law in the context of e-commerce
While international trade in goods has traditionally taken the form of trade between companies, the number of transactions in which consumers are directly involved in the import process is growing all the time. Consumers are able to purchase goods directly from producers established in third countries. Two parallel import channels now exist in competition with each other. However, current European regulations make no distinction between the two import channels. Originating from a period when only international trade in B2B goods existed, customs regulations are ill-suited to international trade in B2C goods. For example, from a customs point of view, final consumers would be subject to the same rights and obligations as companies whose business is precisely to engage in international trade in goods. The interest in studying customs law in the context of e-commerce is all the more justified given that customs duties are higher for finished products than for intermediate products. It is precisely finished products that are the subject of B2C commercial transactions.
Moreover, this new form of international trade takes place in a specific legal and geopolitical context. On the one hand, customs duties have been a traditional resource of the EU since 1970, contributing around 15% to its budget. There is a tendency at EU level to protect the Union's financial interests through regulations and legal precedents. On the other hand, as a consequence of the covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine, we are witnessing a phenomenon of deglobalisation of trade. Both the legal and geopolitical frameworks are in line with the trend to protect European industry (protectionism).
Against that background, the main objective of the thesis is to determine the legal framework that makes it possible to reconcile the protection of the Union's financial interests and the rights of taxpayers in the context of international B2C trade, while taking into account the protectionist trend emerging in European policy. While the purpose of customs regulations is to ensure that the correct entry price is paid when non-EU goods enter the territory of the customs union—with a view both to protecting the Union's financial interests and to ensuring fair competition between European producers and producers established in third countries—they cannot be divorced from respect for taxpayers' rights. Our main research question is therefore as follows: ‘What are (and should be) the rights and obligations of B2C e-Commerce players in their capacity as taxpayers under EU customs law?'
Supervision: Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel
Supervision: Marc Bourgeois
Funding: Aspirant FNRS
Maxime Tecqmenne (2021) - The scope of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in EU flanking policies: a comparative analysis of key social policy, criminal law and environmental protection secondary legislation instruments
This research project focuses on a comparative analysis of the interaction between specific Union secondary legislative instruments and their impact on the intensity with which the Charter applies in three areas that fall outside the traditional core of European market integration (i.e. criminal law, environmental protection and social policy). That analysis seeks to determine the impact of secondary law on the scope of the Charter in those three regulatory areas. Such an analysis will help get a better understanding of the scope of the Charter against the background of expanding EU secondary legislation. More importantly, it also addresses the following principal research question: to what extent does the scope of EU secondary legislation shape the intensity with which the Charter rights and duties apply in the fields of social policy, environmental protection and criminal law and, more generally, what does that imply for the manner in which the Charter affects national regulatory and enforcement autonomy in those fields?
Supervision: Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel
Funding: ERC EUDAIMONIA
Valentin Vandendaele (2018) - The Application of EU Free Movement, Competition, and Secondary Law to Price Regulation
This PhD dissertation concerns the application of EU free movement, competition, and secondary law to price regulation.
Supervision: Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel and Stefaan Van den Bogaert (Leiden)
Funding: F.R.S. - FNRS (PDR - Price Regulation in Digital Commerce)
