Social Justice and EU law
MCEL master thesis project 2023-2024
The MCEL master thesis project ‘Social Justice and EU law’ brings together highly motivated students and expert staff members of the Maastricht Centre for European Law (MCEL).
The interaction of the process of European integration with the social sphere has been crucial since the very origins of the European project. Amidst the inherent tensions that more than 60 years of European integration have not yet entirely solved, the question remains as to what role has the EU to play in relation to social justice and whether the EU itself can be ‘social’.
The idea of social justice relates to redistribution and solidarity, to the protection of vulnerable individuals and communities and to the struggles and tensions that societal and political changes imply.
Social Justice and EU law is therefore not a monolithic notion. It can be declined in several ways across various areas of EU law such as in EU citizenship and migration; Economic and Monetary Union; EU environmental law, EU disability law, EU equality law etc.
For example, topics could cover, but not limited to:
- Cohesion and NextGenerationEU;
- EU citizenship and transnational solidarity;
- Topical issues of EU social / labour law such as platform workers, minimum wages, addressing the gender pay gap, role of equality bodies, work-life balance;
- Social justice in climate change
- Social rights in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
About MCEL
The Maastricht Centre for European Law, MCEL, is the Faculty of Law’s research centre for all issues on European law. It 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 members are part of the department of International & European Law and the department of Public Law.
For more information you may
contact Dr. Pauline Melin at
pauline.melin@maastrichtuniversity.nl
or Dr. Fulvia Ristuccia at
fulvia.ristuccia@maastrichtuniversity.nl
About MCEL’s Thesis Project
ECs and Certificate
For the thesis you will write you will get 12 ECs. At the end of the project, when you have participated in all meetings and your thesis was graded with a 6 or higher, you will obtain a certificate declaring that you have participated in this project. This certificate can be added to your CV.
Download the thesis project flyer