Ongoing and concluded PhDs
PhD researcher or student information
Eleonora Frasca
Contact email: eleonora.frasca@uclouvain.be
Link to website with profile: https://uclouvain.academia.edu/EleonoraFrasca
Discipline: Law
Degrees BA: Single path 5 years degree in European and International Law (Sapienza, University of Rome, Italy)
MA/LLM:
MSc in Public Policy and Human Developement (UNU-merit and Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, Maastricht, The Netherdlands)
PhD Research Information
Brief description:
he focus of this PhD research is on the use of soft cooperation in the field of migration relations between the EU and African countries and the impact that informal cooperation has on European law.By means of a theoretical analysis, I reflect on whether legal analysis is the most pertinent tool for dealing with an issue – informal cooperation - which stands, by nature, at the boundaries of law. EU informal cooperation with African countries will be analysed through the lens of European soft law theory and the relationship between informal cooperation and EU law will be clarified.
If soft law pertains to the legal sphere, although with characteristics that prevent the attribution of its origin to formal sources, different issues arise: first, resorting to soft law creates semi-juridical spaces and procedures other than those proper to law (de-proceduralisation); second, soft law evades the pre-defined, typical forms of acts, becoming inscrutable and intangible (de-formalisation); third, soft law is elusive to both democratic and judicial control, and poses major obstacles as regard to the justiciability of this kind of cooperation (de-legalisation).
By virtue of the (soft) form of cooperation consequences follow in respect of their content. Both the form and content are on an equal level in respect of their importance, however the difficulty to supervise content derives from the preference of soft forms, opacity and secrecy. Therefore, it is important to investigate legal remedies: actions directed against violations of rules relating, on the one hand, to the form of the acts (and therefore with the purpose of denouncing their soft nature) and, on the other hand, to assert violations relating to the content of these acts (containment and immobility of African migrants).
Methodology:
Keywords: cooperation with third countries, EU external governance, external dimension, soft law
Language(s) of writing: English
Home University:
Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)
Faculty:
Faculté de droit et criminologie, CeDIE
Additional information: