Current and completed PhD projects

Name: Kevin van Abswoude
Nationality: Dutch
Project: Dividing the EU VAT and customs liabilities in international supply chain taxation
Supervisors: Prof  Dr  Ad van Doesum and Dr Frank Nellen
Description: Ideally, traders have full control over their own links within supply chains. Therefore, these traders should remit the Value Added Tax (‘VAT’) and customs duties on their own sales and imports. In essence, these tax liabilities follow from the traders’ centralised supply chain powers. However, third-party logistics (‘3PL’) providers have recently taken over logistics functions, and hence, share these powers with traders. This development raises the question whether EU VAT and customs law should follow these shifting and shared powers. Consequently, this research studies how to divide the EU VAT and customs tax liabilities between traders and 3PL providers.

Name: Selman Aksünger
Nationality: Turkish
Project: Permanent sovereignty over natural resources: A normative framework for maintaining maritime zones in the context of sea-level rise
Supervisors: prof.dr. Jure Vidmar and prof.dr. Liesbeth Lijnzaad
Description: Selman’s research examines the international law principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources (PSNR) in the context of sea-level rise. The study inquires if PSNR can be constructed as a normative framework for preserving the maritime zones and the rights and entitlements that flow from them without reduction, notwithstanding any physical changes connected to climate change-related sea-level rise. It analyses the doctrines and related discourses on the impact of sea-level rise and thinking about resource sovereignty in the pre-established maritime zones, which would become outside their maritime zones and even without a territorial connection in the extreme cases of sea-level rise. It will do so by evaluating the historical development of the principle of the PSNR and reconstructing it as a guiding principle but also as the central legal principle underpinning resource sovereignty under international law.

Name: Victoria Sadaf Azizi
Nationality: Afghan/Dutch
Project:  The role of law in the legitimation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Frameworks Supervisors:  prof.dr. Mariolina Eliantonio and prof.dr. Mieke Olaerts
Description: The prime objective of the researchproject is assessing the legitimacy of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting frameworks in addition to the broader perspective of examining voluntary and mandatory CSR transparency regulation for corporations on international, supranational and national level. The added value is that it will assess whether the chosen frameworks effectively respond to the ‘’input, throughput and output’’ legitimacy theory and thereby touching upon the debate on how (soft and hard) law contribute to the legitimacy found in the examined CSR frameworks.

Name: João Otávio Benevides Demasi
Nationality: Brazilian-Italian
Project: Challenges to the WTO Appellate Body Legal Interpretations: a Diplomat’s Mise-en-scène
Supervisor: Prof. dr. Peter Van den Bossche
Description: This project scrutinizes the AB jurisprudence in the light of the diplomatic mise-en-scène during the DSB Meetings, and academic critiques, sometimes written with vested interests.
It is limited to 22 disputed cases by WTO Members during the DSB Meetings out of the 131 issued AB reports. It assesses cum grano salis the fairness of these alleged criticisms, the AB adjudicative reality, and proposes improvements.
It also aims to verify the systematic coherence and internal consistency of the AB jurisprudence scrutinizing and differentiating one Report from another.

Name: Tina Binti Ishak
Nationality: Malaysian
Project: Using Science Fiction Literature as a tool for Pro-Active Law-making in relation to Frontier Technologies: An Interdisciplinary Approach of Law & Literature
Supervisors: Prof Dr Anselm Kamperman-Sanders and Prof Dr Gijs van Dijck
Description: The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognises frontier technologies (robotics, connectomics, artificial intelligence, biotech etc.) as key to humanity’s survival. Their regulation is essential to encourage innovation and manage associated risks. However, the speed of their evolution means technology regulation is constantly trailing behind, addressing yesterday’s problems instead of (preventing) future ones. This research seeks to utilize the “thought-experimentation” nature of Science Fiction literature, which examines how frontier technologies affect the legal narratives in future or alternate societies, to derive normative guidance for lawmakers to enable the creation of future-proofed regulatory framework directly applicable to forecasted social and technological scenarios.

Name: Damla Bos
Project: Company groups and parent company liability
Supervisors: Prof Dr Kid Schwarz and Prof Dr Mieke Olaerts
Description: Damla's research focuses on company group governance and parent company liability within Europe. After an in-depth analysis of group law, an examination is made of the current state of laws on company groups and parent company liability in cases of damages caused by subsidiary operations. In this respect, European and national company law, tort law, group laws and certain specific laws (such as competition law and environmental law) are discussed on a selective basis as an inventory of parent company liability. For purposes of EU regulation of company groups in the future, the lessons that can be learned from this research are scrutinised and suggestions are presented for a better functioning and modern company group governance and parent company liability regime.

Name: Renate Dietvorst
Nationality: Dutch
Project: De Gezonde Basisschool van de Toekomst: De rol van scholen in de verwezenlijking van de rechten van het kind op een gezonde ontwikkeling en op een gezonde vorm van onderwijs in relatie tot de belangen van betrokken partijen.
Supervisors: Prof.dr. Fons Coomans, dr. Rankie ten Hoopen, prof.mr. S. Klosse and prof.dr. O. van Schayck
Description: Het onderzoek richt zich op het nieuwe (pilot) onderwijsconcept van de Gezonde Basisschool van de Toekomst en de daarmee samenhangende juridische aspecten. Het project richt zich op de reikwijdte van de rechten van het kind op gezondheid(szorg) alsmede een gezonde levensstijl, gezond onderwijs en de mogelijkheid tot de uiteindelijke ontwikkeling tot een gezonde burger en de rol van scholen en andere partijen hierin. Verschillende belangen van andere partijen zijn hierbij betrokken. In het onderzoek wordt daarom een analyse gemaakt van de betrokken belangen en de rechten en plichten van de partijen die direct en indirect zijn gekoppeld aan een gezonde school en het recht van kinderen op gezondheid, de rol van scholen daarin en daarbij wordt geanalyseerd hoe er om dient te worden gegaan met eventuele botsende belangen en er wordt ingegaan op de botsing tussen onderwijs en gezondheid.

Name: Valentina Golunova
Nationality: Russian
Project: Better safe than sorry? Reconciling monitoring obligations of online service providers with freedom of expression in the era of automated content moderation
Supervisors: Prof Dr Marta Pertegás Sender and Prof Dr Bruno De Witte
Description: In light of the sweeping advent of AI, both policymakers and judicial authorities in the EU and its Member States have repeatedly sought to incentivise online service providers to proactively detect and remove illegal user-generated content by automated means. However, obligations to continuously inspect the information hosted by providers are at odds with the prohibition of general monitoring obligations under the e-Commerce Directive. The ongoing relaxation of this prohibition, coupled with the flawed nature of algorithms used in content moderation, might give rise to erroneous or discriminatory content takedowns and ultimately compromise freedom of expression online. This research examines how the prohibition of general monitoring obligations contributes to safeguarding freedom of expression and how it should be revised to make it fit for purpose in the algorithmic age.

Name: Aida Halilovic
Nationality: Italian and Bosnian
Project: EU integrated border management: shared competences, shared responsibility, or shared administration?
Supervisors:  prof.dr. Ellen Vos, dr. Sevasti Chatzopoulou (Roskilde University), dr. Lilian Tsourdi
Description: The agencification process undertaken through the creation and empowerment of an EU Border and Coast Guard Agency to replace/incorporate Frontex resulted in a deeper integration in the sphere of migration-related border management, leading towards a genuinely concerted European administrative architecture. This research discusses the legal, political, and administrative architecture that overlies the management and guarding of borders in the EU. The monograph addresses the main issues and controversies arising from the complex, and at times fuzzy, institutional setting and governance model that emerged from the recent reforms in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ), focusing in particular on the special role of EU agencies in shaping the European border regime.

Name: Rebecca Heemskerk
Nationality: Dutch
Project:  Interlocutory Appeals at the International Criminal Tribunals - Rationales, Functions and Future Perspectives
Supervisors:  Dr Hannah Brodersen and Prof Dr André Klip
Description of research project: In proceedings before International Criminal Tribunals and -Courts (ICTs), interlocutory appeal is permitted on a variety of issues. Adopted to accommodate the challenges that accompany international criminal proceedings, it supposes to strengthen both efficiency and fairness. In practice, interlocutory appeals contribute to significant delays, often without delivering a resolution to the issue, undermining instead of promoting efficiency. The certification procedure for interlocutory appeals seems arbitrary, threatening fairness. This research will ascertain how interlocutory appeals at ICTs affect the rights and interests of the stakeholders, will question the self-evidence of these appeals and propose conditions to improve their functioning.

Name: Janine Heim
Nationality: German
Project: Exploring the Exotic Pet Trade between South Africa and Germany
Supervisors: Dr Donna Yates and Dr Annette Hübschle
Description:  This project explores the trade in exotic pets from a new angle by using the ‘zooming-in, zooming out’ method to reconstruct the path of a traded exotic pet between South Africa, a comparatively capital-poor, but biodiversity-rich country, to Germany, capital-rich, but biodiversity-poor country. 'Zooming-in, zooming-out' is a mapping strategy that traces a cultural formation from and within multiple sites and multiple perspectives. It has predominantly been used in organisational research and management studies but offers the tools to reconstruct connected enterprises through an object (in this case the exotic pet) they trade by focusing on the inclusion of context, relations, and socio-material activities. For this project, the different dimensions of the trade are researched by trialling ‘zooming-in’ as a method to wholistically reconstruct previously unassessed trade routes, its participants, and their inherent dynamics; and testing ‘zooming-out’ as a method to examine vulnerabilities emanating from these reconstructed routes.

Name: Jens Hillebrand Pohl
Nationality: Swedish
Project: Arbitration of Investment Treaty Claims Relating to Foreign
Exchange Restrictions—Judicializing International Monetary Law Through Private Enforcement as a Means of Restoring Trust in Trade and Investment
Supervisors: Prof. dr. P.L.H. Van den Bossche, dr. D. Prévost and dr. Rodrigo Polanco (World Trade Institute)
Description: International economic activity depends on the cross-border flows that characterize economic globalization—principally of goods, services, capital and labour. These flows all have in common that they involve some element of transnational transfers of funds. The international regulation of trade, investments and other economic activities is therefore inextricably linked to the regulation on the international plane of the transfer and currency conversion of such funds, i.e. on international monetary law. In the Post-War international economic order and global institutional set-up, the task of enforcing the rules of international monetary law fell upon the International Monetary Fund. This role was enshrined in GATT 1947 and remains essentially intact. In recent years, the efforts of the Fund to enforce such rules has not been sufficient to quell allegations against States of exchange-rate misalignment and currency manipulation. This research looks at private enforcement of international monetary law and asks whether investment arbitration of exchange-rate disputes may offer an alternative enforcement mechanism that might result in positive externalities, benefitting all investors, traders and other non-disputing third parties, and thereby may help restoring trust in trade and investment. The paper seeks to confirm the availability, practicality and functionality of arbitral process to resolve disputes relating to currency convertibility. The thesis first explores whether investment disputes relating to exchange rate restrictions are arbitrable for reasons of public policy and the political sensitivity of the interests concerned and, if so, whether and under what conditions any resulting arbitral awards nonetheless may be refused recognition and enforcement. In a second step, the enquiry interprets the scope of application and manner of application of substantive international investment law to determine whether such disputes fall within the scope of investment treaty protections and whether such protections should be restrictively applied to such disputes. 

Name: Marilou Hubers
Nationality: Dutch
Project: The Protection of Social Rights in the context of Cross-border Company Mobility in Europe
Supervisors: prof.dr. Anne Pieter van der Mei and dr. Marcus Meyer
Description: The research analyses the social dimension of cross-border company mobility within Europe. Cross-border mergers, divisions and seat transfers may have significant implications for employees’ rights to information and consultation, board-level representation and protection against (collective) dismissals. The project seeks to establish to what extent the ‘before-and-after-principle’, which requires that employees’ rights that exist prior to a cross-border company transaction are retained thereafter, is respected in practice.

Name: Guleid Jama
Nationality: Somaliland
Project: Do Our Children Have Rights?: Children’s Rights in the Unrecognised State of Somaliland
Supervisors: Prof Dr Fons Coomans and Dr Marieke Hopman
Description: Guleid studies children’s rights in Somaliland, an unrecognised State. He studies the applicability of international child (human) rights laws on Somaliland and evaluates how the domestic laws of Somaliland protect or do not protect children’s rights. Currently, the prevailing narrative concerning child (human) rights is centred on (recognised) States, the implementation of human rights obligations, and the role of non-State actors. Activists and researchers often examine if a particular State has signed a particular treaty and, if the answer is yes, whether the obligations therein have been fulfilled. This research aims to fill the gap by focusing on an unrecognised State from the perspective of international law, in particular international human rights law as well as from the perspective of national law.

Name: Konstantin Jänicke
Nationality: German
Project: Risk and Vulnerability in the Assetization of Expensive Pre-Owned Watches
Supervisors:  Prof Dr Donna Yates and Prof Dr Rachel Pownall
Description: This interdisciplinary research project focuses on the market for luxury watches and its relation to subversive crime. To that end, the market and its environment are analysed from an economic and sociological perspective, and the findings are evaluated through the lens of Criminology. The goal is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the economic and sociological structures of the market, and to place them within a criminological framework. Ultimately, risks and vulnerabilities for subversive crime within this market will be pointed out and addressed. 
This project is conducted within the PRICELESS research consortium.

Name: Krishnamani Jayaraman
Nationality: Indian
Project: Progressive adaptations of IP and competition law principles to bridge the "valley of death"in translational biomedical research
Supervisors: prof.dr. Anselm Kamperman Sanders, prof..dr.Josef Drexl and dr. Anke Moerland
Description: Krishnamani Jayaraman's research interests and focus center around the adaptive configuration of IP and competition law principles to bridge the "valley of death"in translational biomedical research. More specifically, I would look at the prospects of typifying knowledge and other intellectual assets as "social constructs" in a co-creation environment to facilitate better science-society interactions.

Name: Yingying Jing
Nationality: Chinese
Project: The Role of Asian States in the Negotiation of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage
Supervisors: Prof.dr. Hildegard Schneider
Description: The Underwater Cultural Heritage is normally a time capsule because everything is there at that moment when the wreck occurs. Threats to this valuable but limited historical and archaeological resources come from any aspects. In 2001, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage was adopted and went into force in 2009. During the negotiation process, the Asian States took an active and supportive role, proposing suggestion and comments that adopted in the final Convention.

Name: Stevi Kitsou
Nationality: Greek
Project: Social media platforms challenging EU fundamental rights protection: The need for an effective response o online hate speech’
Supervisors: Prof Dr Monica Claes  and Dr Matteo Bonelli
Description: While social media has shaped novel forms of interaction, it has also served as the ideal platform for hate speech. This project will investigate the potential of a common EU approach to hate speech on social media, based on fundamental rights considerations at a time when the EU is beginning to shape its response to the matter. The research will also look into the role of the EU in a regulatory landscape framed by national laws, social media guidelines and an EU added framework in search of a governance model that could respond to the challenges of online hate speech.

Name: Mayke Knoben
Nationality: Dutch
Project: Work-related mental injury: compensation and reintegration
Supervisors: Prof. mr. Ton Hartlief and prof.dr. Saskia Klosse
Description: Work-related mental injury is becoming increasingly important as a type of damage for which redress can be sought. Although this development is common to many states, the different legal systems that have to deal with it are not. This research aims to provide insight into the extent to which the choice for a type of legal system has an effect on the victim’s possibilities to participate in the reintegration process and to obtain compensation in the case of work-related mental injury. For this purpose, a functional comparative study for Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands will be conducted.

Name: Andreina de Leo
Nationality: Italian
Project: EU’s Shifting Borders- Scrutinizing Externalization of Migration Management and International Protection Responsibilities
Supervisors: Prof Dr Mariolina Eliantonio, Prof Dr Andrea Ott, Dr Lilian Tsourdi and Dr. Alberto-Horst Neidhardt (European Policy Center)
Description: In the past years, and especially in the aftermath of the so-called “refugee crisis”, the European Union has increasingly outsourced the implementation of its migration and border management policy to third countries, despite their often questionable human rights record, with the ultimate aim of preventing migrants to reach the territory of the EU to seek protection. The EU sustains its cooperation with third countries in this area mainly though funding mechanisms in the field of development cooperation policy. Against this backdrop, this project will examine the legality of the use of development assistance to pursue EU’s migration management objectives, in the light of permissible aims and its impact on the fundamental rights of migrants, using selected EU-funded projects as case studies. It will further reflect on the availability of judicial and non-judicial accountability mechanisms to challenge said employment of EU funds.

Name: Xi Lin
Nationality: Chinese
Project: The Copyright Protection of Fictional Characters in the United States, Germany and Mainland China in the Digital Age
Supervisors: Prof.dr. Anselm Kamperman-Sanders and dr. Ana Ramalho
Description: Fictional characters are at the center of the clash between the economic rights of copyright holders and the social and cultural interest of the audience.  The clash intensifies in the digital age. This research aims at analyzing the copyright protection of fictional characters in the light of managing market externality.  By analyzing the scope of protection, standard of infringement, and exceptions to copyright protection in the jurisdictions of the United States, Germany, and Mainland China, the research intends to provide a spectrum that demonstrates the gradation of copyright policies in relation to the respective market externalities.

Name: Hanxu Liu
Nationality: Chinese
Project:  Collective Voice in the Global Arena: Interactions with the United Nations
Supervisors: prof.dr. Fons Coomans, dr Andrea Broderick, prof.dr. Lisa Waddington, prof.dr. Jerome Bickenbach (Swiss Paraplegic Research/University of Lucerne), Ms Catalina Devandas Aguilar (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities)
Description: this research project aims to examine whether European DPOs have effectively conducted disability rights advocacy with the UN human rights system, with a particular focus on their interactions with the UN CRPD Committee and with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It will investigate the processes, outcomes/results of such interactions at the national and international levels, and explore the implications for future actions.

PhD Candidate: Alessandro Marcia
Nationality: Italian
Project: A Union of Equality: the protection of LGBTIQA+ rights in the EU
Supervisors: Prof Dr Monica Claes, Dr Matteo Bonelli and Dr Pauline Melin
Abstract: The European Union has evolved from a purely market-oriented project to a Union of Equality. While LGBTIQA+ rights have been gradually incorporated within different areas of EU law, their legal implications for the EU constitutional framework remain largely underexplored. The research investigates the potential of EU competences to deal with LGBTIQA+ rights, and the legal tools that have been mobilized in this respect. It will also focus on clashes between EU institutions and the Member States, often stemming from deep differences in national laws and approaches pertaining to the rights of individuals identifying as LGBTIQA+.

Name: Lucia Martinez Lorenzo
Nationality: Spanish
Project: The impact of public procurement law on horizontal and vertical teaming of economic operators in construction projects. Reconciling effective and undistorted competition and the free market
Supervisors: Prof Dr Steven van Garsse (Hasselt University), Prof Dr Mariolina Eliantonio and Prof Dr Sarah Schoenmaekers (Hasselt and Maastricht University)
Description: Contracting authorities in the EU spend around 2 trillion euros per year on pubic contracts. This represents  14% - 20 % of the EU’s GDP. In 2014, the Public Procurement package introduced some novelties regarding the rules applicable to subcontractors that have been later on implemented at a national level with different outcomes. This research aims to determine the impact of these regulations combined with the existent case law of the CJUE on teaming between economic operators in the construction sector, as well as to assess to what extent the current legislation constitutes a limitation for competition and the internal market by taking as an example the cases of Belgium, The Netherlands and Spain.

Name: Manon Moerman
Nationality: Belgian
Title: Private Partnerships in early modern Amsterdam (17th – 18th centuries)
Supervisors: prof.dr. Bram van Hofstraeten and prof.dr. Matthijs de Jong (Erasmus Law School)
Description: this research aims to discover what the legal characteristics and organizational features were of Amsterdam’s early modern private partnerships and how these evolved during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries based on notarized partnership contracts. These findings will then be compared to contemporaneous jurisprudence and legislation to examine if major discrepancies existed between the law in books, i.e. enacted or authoritatively declared law and doctrine, and the law in action, i.e. how early modern entrepreneurs actually organized themselves in daily life. This will ultimately lead to a better understanding as to what extent early modern entrepreneurs acted in accordance with legislative and doctrinal sources.

Name: Jessica Noack
Nationality:  German
Project: New Psychoactive Substances Markets in a Cross-Border Context
Supervisors:  Prof Dr Hans Nelen and Dr Roland Moerland
Description: Despite their potential for serious harm, new psychoactive substances (NPS) have become increasingly available and popular in recent years. These substances are by definition not governed by the same international laws as other established drugs. This research investigates the modus operandi and characteristics of NPS networks to better understand the motivations, incentives and dynamics of those involved in these (il-)legal drug markets. It aims to address these issues by taking into account the different cross-border contexts of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, and to illuminate challenges and opportunities law enforcement officials are presented with in their respective jurisdictions.

Name: Bas Pasterkamp
Nationality: Dutch
Project: European constitutional advice and Dutch institutional constitutional law
Supervisors: Prof Dr Joost Sillen and Dr Maarten Stremler
Description: The classical view on the design of Dutch institutional constitutional law is that this is almost exclusively up to the national authorities. However, nowadays the Netherlands receives more and more constitutional advice from a myriad of European bodies, like the European Commission and various bodies of the Council of Europe. This PhD research will systematically map the impact of constitutional advice on Dutch institutional constitutional law in order to figure out what it means for our understanding of Dutch constitutional law that institutional choices seemingly need to be justified more and more before ‘external’ bodies.

Name: Flavia Patanè
Nationality: Italian
Project: From ‘smuggled’ to ‘smugglers’: the criminalisation of irregular migrants involved in human smuggling in the EU
Supervisors: Prof.dr. Hans Nelen and prof.dr. Arjen Leerkes
Description: This project examines the phenomenon of irregular migrants, asylum seekers included, that participate in human smuggling procedures to facilitate their own migration journey to the EU and within the Schengen area. Through collection of empirical data, it will be explored to what extent EU States - e.g. Italy and the Netherlands - prosecute this category of migrants and the impacts possible prosecutions have over the involved migrants’ access to international protection. The project therefore explores the balance that should be reached in these cases between States’ interest to fight human smuggling and the rights of the migrants in light of States’ international obligations towards refugees and asylum seekers.

Name: Danai Petropoulou Ionescu
Nationality: Greek-Romanian 
Project: Cracking the Black-Box of Green Governance: Transparency and Participation in the Process of Soft Law Making in the Field of European Environmental Policy
Supervisors: Prof Dr Mariolina Eliantonio and Dr Elissaveta Radulova 
Description: Soft law is a key player in the scientifically and politically complex field of EU environmental law. In fact, soft law instruments providing post-legislative guidance are frequently used by the European Commission to aid with the application, transposition, and interpretation of EU environmental legislation. While soft law has been studied extensively at the ex-post phase, little academic attention has been paid to the process of soft law making itself – simply put, we know very little about how soft law instruments are made, and whether or not they adhere to the Union’s democratic ideals. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining perspectives from law, political science, and public administration to examine the procedural legitimacy of the soft law making process in EU environmental regulation by inquiring into the procedural legal frameworks and procedural realities of this process in light of the principles of transparency and participation. 

Name: Justine Richelle
Nationality: Belgian
Project: Does the EU suffer from an “environmental democratic deficit”? Public participation in environmental decision-making in a comparative perspective
Supervisors: Prof Dr Mariolina Eliantonio (UM), Prof Dr Marjan Peeters (UM) and Prof Dr Stijn Verbist (Hasselt University)
Description: This joint PhD between Maastricht University and the University of Hasselt focuses on public participation in environmental decision-making, a right guaranteed by the UN Aarhus Convention and pursuant to which arrangements have to be made by public authorities in order to enable the public and environmental NGOs to comment on projects and activities affecting the environment, and on plans and programmes for projects relating the environment. Directive 2003/35/EC transposes the Convention into EU law in relation to public participation. Since this Directive provides for minimum harmonisation provisions only, it leaves room for Member States to use vague concepts and varying definitions. The heterogeneous and possibly too low implementation of the Convention can be dangerous for democratic decision-making in the EU. As a proof, the case law of the CJEU has been growing over the past few years. More than twenty years after the signing of the Aarhus Convention, no comparative study has to date been carried out to establish the state of participation rights in environmental decision-making in the EU. My research aims at partially filling this gap by identifying how public participation rights in the fields of air quality and industrial emissions have been implemented in three Member States: Belgium, France and Ireland.

Name: Mustafa Can Sati
Nationality: Turkish
Project:  Lethal Use of Weaponized Artificial Intelligence and the Law of Armed Conflict: Legal and Ethical Perspectives
Supervisors: prof.dr. Jure Vidmar and mr.dr. Wim Muller
Description: In the contemporary world, fully autonomous weapon systems are not used militarily due to technical, legal and ethical concerns. They are, however, likely to be implemented in the future subsequent to further development of artificial intelligence (AI). Although there are studies which deal with autonomous weapons, there is none that focus specifically on the effects of AI in terms of international humanitarian law (IHL). Therefore, this project questions how the inclusion of AI technology in such weapons increases existing fears described in literature and reveals the concerns unique to the use of autonomous weapons that are fully operated by AI by incorporating the law and technology perspective within IHL.

Name: Guotong Shen
Nationality: Chinese
Project: Mixed Ownership Reform and Employee Participation in China’s State-Owned Enterprises: From the Perspective of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan
Supervisors: prof.dr. Michael Faure and prof.dr. Niels Philipsen
Description: Improving and developing the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and effectively managing the relationship between government and market have always been the focus of the Chinese government. In 2013, a new round of the mixed ownership reform was launched in China. Selected employees can purchase stocks of state-owned enterprises they work for and become shareholders, thereby forming a community of interests between capital and labour. This research explores the status quo of the employee stock ownership plan during the reform of China’s state-owned enterprises after 2013, it examines the effects on ownership structure and employee participation, and compares the differences in employee participation between China and Germany.

Name: Mark Steijns
Nationality: Dutch
Project: De menselijke maat als eindpunt, een sociaal constitutioneel toetsingsrecht als kompas
Supervisors: Prof Dr Anne Pieter van der Mei and Prof Dr Gijsbert Vonk
Description: The main focus of this research project is on the relevance of a constitutional right to review legislation for compatibility with socioeconomic human rights for the protection of individuals in the Dutch social security system. This focus is supported by an account of the constitutional significance of the human right to social security in the Netherlands, an analysis of the role that the judiciary has in relation to this human right and an in-depth study of the individual safeguard function of social human rights.

Name: Ruben Tans
Nationality: Belgian
Project: Integration after the migration crisis: haben wir es geschafft? Analysing the effectiveness of the Belgian, Dutch, German and Swedish frameworks on the integration of migrants in employment and education
Supervisors: Prof Dr Hildegard Schneider, Prof Dr Petra Foubert (UHasselt) and Dr Šejla Imamović
Description: Since the migration crisis, the EU and its Member State were confronted with the challenging task of processing the high number of applications for asylum. However, they soon faced a new challenge: the integration of the recognised asylum seekers and other migrants. As the EU only has a supporting role to play in the management of migration and the integration procedure, the burden was put on the individual Member States. By analysing and comparing the national frameworks on integration of Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, and thereby focusing on educational and labour market integration, this research identifies both best and worst practices, while at the same time suggesting ways to improve the national frameworks. Additionally, this research focuses on the role played by the EU during the migration crisis and purports to assess whether, and to what extent, the EU should have been more actively involved. Can we conclude with: “wir haben es geschafft”?

Name: Jana Trifunovic
Nationality: Dutch and Serbian
Project: May it Please the Rule of Law? A Comparative Study into the Desirability and Scope of Independent Judicial Research in Contemporary Criminal Adjudication
Supervisors: Prof.dr. Aalt Willem Heringa and prof.dr. Göran Sluiter (Open University of the Netherlands)
Description: Considering the factually complex context of modern-day criminal adjudication and the nearly unfettered access to data within information societies, should independent judicial research be allowed and to what extent? Much like the tipping scales of Lady Justice, the more judges know or can research through easily accessible sources, the less capable the law appears to be in guiding their actions linked to that knowledge or research, and vice versa. Through conducting comparative and empirical legal research, this study aims to mend this discrepancy by compiling a Model Bench Book on Independent Judicial Research, suitable for domestic and international criminal adjudication.

Name: Nora Vissers
Nationality: Dutch
Project: : Safeguarding European Democracy: The EU's role in protecting free elections in the Member States
Supervisors: Prof Dr Joost Sillen, Prof Dr Monica Claes and Dr Sascha Hardt
Description: The constitutional foundations of various Member States are being undermined through incremental erosion of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights. The EU has intervened to protect the rule of law within MS, with the Court of Justice playing an important role through legal enforcement of this Art. 2 TEU value. This project focuses on the safeguarding of another EU value, namely democracy. The research seeks to determine whether the principles giving concrete expression to democracy are judicially enforceable at EU level. Specifically, it focuses on the element of free elections. 

Name: Meng Wang
Nationality: Chinese
Project: Post-conflict Peacebuilding under In​ternational Environmental Law: A Focus on Transboundary Watercourses and Aquifers
Supervisors: Prof Dr Michael Faure and Prof Dr Liesbeth Lijnzaad
Description: Currently, there is an apparent decline in the global incidence of major armed conflict, however, many countries are still struggling with a conflict-affected society, especially riparian who shares watercourses and aquifers.  Unfortunately, the current scholarly literature normally ignores peacebuilding in the international watercourse and tends to only focus on how to simply settle the disputes.  At the same time, there is no agreed-upon global framework to guide the peacemaking activities in post-conflict societies. Under the circumstance of that, this proposed research will attempt to explore peacebuilding in transboundary watercourses and how the critical ingredients and steps learned from that can benefit the establishment of the future peacebuilding framework. 

Name: Ying Xie
Nationality: Chinese
Title of my research: Regulatory Enforcement Regimes of the Chinese Greenhouse-Gas Emission Trading Schemes: A Study of Law and Economics
Supervisors: Prof Dr Michael Faure and Prof Dr Niels Philipsen
Short description of my research: Ying’s PhD research focuses on whether there are enforcement strategies in the Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme (GHG ETS) that ensure compliance by regulated entities in a cost-effective way. Taking the enforcement regimes of the Chinese national and pilot CO2 ETSs as an example, this research evaluates the cost-effectiveness of China’s ETS enforcement regimes on a law and economics dimension. To provide a benchmark for evaluation, this research explores the general designs of the cost-effective ETS enforcement regime based on economic theories. This implies that although the example used in this study is on China, other ETS policymakers outside of China would draw inspiration from this research for designing a cost-effective enforcement regime.

Name: Nellie de With
Nationality: Dutch
Project: Incomplete execution of imprisonment sentences? A comparative study into the causes and consequences of the disparity between sentencing and the execution of sentences
Supervisors: prof. mr. André Klip and dr. Jacques Claessen
Description: There is no legal system that fully executes imprisonment sentences exactly as they are imposed by the court. In almost all legal systems the executed sentence is shorter than the imposed sentence, for example as a result of early release or parole because of post-verdict circumstances. That creates tension between the expectations created by the imposed sentence and the reality of the executed sentence. It appears that the causal link between sentencing and execution is ambiguous. This raises a question: which factors play a part in determining sentences and how do we explain the disparity between sentences imposed and executed?