Maastricht Centre for European Law
Research institutes

Maastricht Centre for European Law

The Maastricht Centre for European law (MCEL) is committed to the study of European law from an interdisciplinary, transnational, and multilingual perspective. MCEL studies the law of the European Union in its constitutional and political context, with a specific focus on the tension between, on the one hand, uniformity and centralisation at the European level and, on the other hand, differentiation and autonomy of Member States. The research programme of the Centre analyses the European integration process from both an institutional and substantive perspective in a global context. MCEL research covers most areas of EU law. MCEL currently has 45 members, belonging to the department of International & European Law and the department of Public Law.

 
Research

MCEL’s research is an integral part of the Faculty’s research programme and relates to both the ‘integration’ and ‘interaction’ poles of that programme. It deals with the different dimensions of the legal integration process that takes place in the context of the European Union, and it pays due attention to the interactions, on the one hand between the EU legal order and public international law, and on the other hand between EU law and the national legal systems of its Member States.

There is thus a natural fit between the research agenda of MCEL and that of the Law Faculty as a whole. More specifically, the research of MCEL members relates to all five pillars of the Faculty’s research programme, with some prevalence for the pillar Institutional Transformations.

 Visit MCEL's research lines

MCEL’s research takes place in all five Faculty research pillars:

1. Global Justice
2. Institutional Transformations
3. Globalising Markets
4. Cross-border Cooperation and Mobility
5. Law and Technology

News

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Events

  • 19 Mar
    16:00 - 17:30

    Jean Monnet EU Migration Law and Governance Lecture Series 

    On 19 March, our speakers are Niovi Vavoula (University of Luxembourg), Jacob Öberg (University of Southern Denmark), Francesca Cancellaro (Studio Legale Gamberini; University of Bologna) and Johannes Keiler (University of Maastricht).

     

  • 26 Mar
    11:00 - 12:30

    EU Trade Policy and Geopolitics

    Seminar with Cecilia Malmström, Former European Commissioner for Trade (co-organised by the Globalisation & Law Network and the MCEL)

  • 26 Mar 25 Jun
    14:00 - 15:30

    MCEL Seminars

    The activities of the centre include regular organisation of academic conferences and workshops, as well as monthly research seminars to which high-level speakers are invited to discuss a specific topic in the field of EU law. 

PhD Research at MCEL: video on EU Fundamental Rights

MCEL PhD researchers Elin, Stevi and Valentina talk about their projects dealing with EU fundamental rights. Elin Börjedal examines the constellation of actors involved in fundamental rights protection in the EU and the division of responsibilities between them. Stevi Kitsou aspires to devise EU-wide principles and standards for countering hate speech online.

Zooming in on the challenge of protecting fundamental rights in the digital dimension, Valentina Golunova tackles the risks stemming from the use of AI in content moderation.