Current and completed PhD projects

Name: Kevin van Abswoude
Nationality: Dutch
Project: Revisiting the EU VAT position of intermediaries in supply chains
Supervisors: Prof  Dr  Ad van Doesum and Dr Frank Nellen
Description: This PhD project examines the EU Value Added Tax (‘VAT’) position of intermediaries in supply chains. Within this transaction tax, taxable persons may deduct, and must remit, VAT. Consecutive transactions by multiple taxable persons trigger a chain of deduction and taxation. Intermediaries (including resellers, commissionaires, agents, and platforms) are difficult to position either within or outside this chain. Obscure legislation and conflicting jurisprudence create legal uncertainty. By revisiting the VAT position of intermediaries, this dissertation seeks to strengthen legal certainty and resolve inconsistencies.

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: 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: Carolina Cicati
Nationality: -
Project: The good jurist: Mapping the core attributes of a good jurist and the educational practices that stimulate their development
Supervisors:  Prof Dr Sjoerd Claessens, Dr T. Grohnert and Dr Nicole Kornett
Description: Good jurists who advocate for their clients and uphold the rule of law are essential to a just society. Recent examples from practice (e.g. the Toeslagenaffaire and domestic violence cases) and the changing nature of the profession raise questions about their role. This research has two primary aims. Firstly, it aims to develop a conceptual model for identifying the core attributes of a good jurist. Secondly, it aims to identify educational practices in undergraduate law degrees that foster their development. The findings will help law schools better align legal education with the core attributes society needs from future legal professionals. 

Name: Hugo Decker
Project:  Discovering law in nature — On the historical methodological problems faced by evolutionary theory and natural law
Supervisors: prof.dr. Bram Van Hofstraeten and dr. Antonia Waltermann
Description: This project examines the methodological problems within naturalistic natural law and explores their impact on current evolutionary approaches to morality. More precisely, it tries to answer three questions: (A) “What is naturalistic natural law?”, (B) “What do contemporary evolutionists claim vis-à-vis law and morality?” and (C) “Which methodological problems do they both encounter?”.

Naam: Nikki van Dijk
Nationaliteit: Nederlandse
Project: Juridisch Onderwijs in het tijdperk van Artificiële Intelligentie: een onderzoek naar een constructief en toekomstbestendig leerproces van juridische studenten
Begeleiders: Prof.dr. Sjoerd Claessens en dr. Nicole Kornet
Beschrijving: Dit onderzoek analyseert de impact van AI op juridisch onderwijs, met als doel te onderzoeken op welke manier het juridisch onderwijs toekomstbestendig kan worden vormgegeven. Onderzocht wordt hoe AI de ontwikkeling van kerncompetenties beïnvloedt binnen bestaande onderwijskundige kaders. Centraal staat het leerproces van de student, dat wordt geanalyseerd vanuit diverse invloedssferen om te bepalen of leerdoelen en onderwijsmethoden moeten worden aangepast en hoe deze aanpassingen eruit zouden kunnen zien. Het onderzoek levert inzichten en aanbevelingen op voor een zorgvuldige en verantwoorde integratie van AI, met behoud van belangrijke beroepsvaardigheden en de integriteit van het onderwijs.

Name: Belén Gracia
Nationality: Argentinian/Italian
Project: Rethinking the international law framework for an inclusive circular economy in plastics
Supervisors: Prof Dr Dominic Coppens, Dr Iveta Alexovicova, Dr André Nunes Chaib 
Description:Transitioning from a linear “take-make-dispose” economy to a circular economy (CE) by all countries, including developing ones, will contribute to solving the global plastic pollution crisis. An appropriate and coherent international law framework (ILF) is needed to enable this transition. This study aims to address that gap by focusing on four regulatory dimensions relevant to a circular economy in plastics: international environmental law rules; international human rights; international economic law (IEL) rules, and the ongoing negotiations of the Plastics Treaty. The study explores to what extent the current ILF enables an inclusive CE in plastics, analysing each regulatory dimension from a framework that considers the full plastic’s lifecycle as well as inclusivity aspects. To carry out this analysis the study combines doctrinal legal research with empirical legal research, including observations and semi-structured interviews regarding the Plastics Treaty negotiations.

Name: Saara Hammar
Nationality: Finnish
Project: Silent Partners in Harm? Criminal Liability in Human-AI High-Risk Decision-Making
Supervisors: Prof Dr André Klip and Dr Alice Giannini
Description: : A critical issue arises as human decision-making becomes increasingly reliant on AI systems: how should criminal liability be determined in scenarios involving AI assisted decision-making? Traditional concepts such as negligence and duty of care become obscure when they are applied in this context. High-risk settings, namely environments where decisions can lead to significant harm and severe consequences for affected individuals or society at large, reveal the challenges involved in the integration of AI systems into decision-making processes. The central problem this research addresses is the impact of AI on criminal liability and human agency.

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: 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: Konstantin Jänicke
Nationality: German
Project: Risk and Vulnerability in the Assetization of Expensive Pre-Owned Watches
Supervisors:  Prof Dr Donna Yates, Dr Giulia Giardi 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: Lucia Jeremiasová
Nationality: Slovak
Project: Empowering Shareholders to Enhance Corporate Sustainability
Supervisors: Prof.dr. Mieke Olaerts and prof.dr. Bastiaan Kemp
Description: Company law facilitates the use of various legal instruments that can make corporate behaviour more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. In her PhD project, Lucia focuses specifically on shareholder rights and investigates whether these rights can positively influence corporate sustainability. In particular, she discusses convention and agenda rights, information rights, and voting rights, including voting on the appointment and dismissal of directors, executive remuneration, and the company’s climate policy. Based on the stringency of regulation and frequency of the rights’ use in Delaware, the UK, and the Netherlands, Lucia creates a catalogue of shareholder rights that can enhance corporate sustainability.

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: Sophie Karatzas
Nationality: Dutch and Greek
Project: De balans tussen bestraffen en opvoeden: een juridisch-empirisch onderzoek naar de pedagogische aanpak in Nederlandse jeugdstrafzaken
Supervisors:  Prof Dr Jacques Claessen, Prof Dr Miet Vanderhallen, Dr Dorris de Vocht
Description: The pedagogical approach is the guiding principle of the Dutch juvenile criminal justice system. However, it is unclear to what degree this approach manifests itself during the trial phase and in the following final judgment. How key professionals give substance to the approach is underexamined. Equally, how juveniles experience trial proceedings and whether they understand (the reasons for) the judgment remains undetermined. Therefore, this research consists of an empirical legal study on the pedagogical approach at trials and in judgments, establishing how and to what extent the approach is realised in practice, and determining if and how it should be optimised.

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: Daria Kotova
Nationality: Russian
Project: Digitalization of Global Agricultural Value Chains: The Role of Competition Law
Supervisors: Prof Dr Anna Beckers and Dr Friso Bostoen (Tilburg University) 
Description: This project focuses on the digitalisation of value chains including processes of automation and data collection. Such digitalization processes may lead to new forms of power concentration that require appropriate legal regulation. Her project is part of the ERC-funded "CHAINLAW" project that explores global value chains as objects of responsive legal regulation.
Specifically, the project is aimed at investigating the role of competition and market practices law as part of responsive law within a broader legal regime regulating global value chains. This project suggests looking at the effects on digital-driven concentration and digitalization on different levels of agrifood value chains with a focus on agricommodity trading. Driven by data and technology, powerful actors of the global food value chain are able to influence the way value is created and distributed along the value chain. This project borrows competition law’s advanced toolbox to look for ways to mitigate risks arising from such behavior, whether it constitutes a competition-law relevant theory of harm or not.

Name: Saskia von Landenberg
Nationality: German
Project: Strengthening Social Europe: The Potential of the (Revised) European Social Charter in Furthering Social Rights in EU law
Supervisors: Prof Dr Anne Pieter van der Mei, Dr Šejla Imamović and Dr Fulvia Ristuccia 
Description: This research focuses on the protection of social rights through the Council of Europe's (Revised) European Social Charter and the EU. The doctoral thesis examines in how far the Charter and EU law impose different levels of social rights protection on their respective State Parties and the potential conflicts created thereby for EU Member States. In a subsequent step, the research analyses whether a closer cooperation (e.g. through EU accession to the Charter) between the EU and the Charter, including its supervisory body, the European Committee of Social Rights, would be feasible and desirable to strengthen social rights protection in Europe.

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.

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: Nurhidayatuloh
Nationality: Indonesian
Project: Addressing the Character of the 1945-49 Indonesia-Netherlands ‘Armed Conflict’ and Its Post-1950 Consequences
Supervisors: Prof Dr André Klip and Dr Roland Moerland
Description: : The 1945–1949 Indonesia–Netherlands conflict remains the subject of debate regarding whether the events constitute “serious crimes”. During this period, the Republic of Indonesia was recognized as a de facto government, a status affirmed by a United Nations Security Council resolution. Notably, the conflict saw widespread atrocities, including massacres, torture, and sexual violence by Dutch military forces to the local populations, as well as retaliatory acts by Indonesian (para)military groups. To resolve the crimes, both governments made an agreement granting amnesty for crimes committed during the conflict. This study focuses on analyzing the nature of the breaches, the legal impact of de facto recognition, and the amnesty’s relevance to (international) criminal accountability before and after 1950.

Name: Joey van de Pasch
Nationality: -
Project: The qualification of high-risk AI compliance systems in the financial and tax sector
Supervisors: Prof Dr Raymond Luja and Dr Rohan Nanda
Description: This research is about analysing the impact of high-risk AI systems in the financial sector. To determine the impact of this classification on the financial sector it is crucial to study the algorithms from a mathematical point of view and to aim for a technical explanation of the high-risk classification. This research falls within the scope of Computational Science of Taxation which is all about interdisciplinary thinking and understanding complex financial/tax systems by developing computational models and methods.

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: Mohammed Rakraki
Nationality: Moroccan
Project: The mechanism of taking into consideration foreign acts in horizontal composite procedures. A contribution to the study of EU administrative governance 
Supervisors: Prof Dr Olivier Dubos (University of Bordeaux) and Prof Dr Mariolina Eliantonio
Description: Mohammed's project explores the mechanism of “taking into consideration” foreign acts in administrative decision-making, which plays a pivotal and often overlooked role in EU administrative law. Focusing on the policy areas of migration and taxation, this project analysis how these mechanisms challenge the principle of territoriality and influence the rights to good administration and effective judicial protection. By developing a taxonomy based on EU legislation and CJEU case law, this research seeks to establish more coherent procedural standards for administrative decision-making and foster a deeper understanding of the EU legal order. 

Name: Vivan Salles Viera Pinto
Nationality: Brazilian
Project: Between Heritage and Concealment: Redefining Adoptees' Right to Know Their Origins
Supervisors: Prof Dr Marta Pertegás Sender, Dr Antonia Waltermann
Description: This research aims to investigate the (lack of) conceptual clarity of the term "adoptees' right to know their origins" and to improve it at both the international and domestic levels, in light of a framework of legal certainty. The research explores diverse concepts, including access to origins, identity rights, and the intersection of family law and international human rights standards. 

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: Susanne Sivonen
Nationality: Finnish
Project: The many faces of cross-border healthcare 
Supervisors: Prof Dr Anne-Pieter van der Mei and Dr Pauline Melin 
Description: The research examines legal obstacles faced in cross-border healthcare in (cross-)border regions between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, focusing on the mobility of patients and healthcare workers, and cross-border cooperation of healthcare providers. The research explores the unique interplay between European and national legislation in cross-border regions, focusing on legal fields such as health law, social security and labour law, highlighting how this complex interaction of the legal frameworks creates barriers that hinder the organisation and access to cross-border healthcare. The research identifies and recommends structural solutions to these obstacles and the most appropriate governance level for effective implementation. 

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: Paul Stewens
Nationality: German
Project: Bones of Contention: Mapping the Odd Interactions of Law with Palaeontological Objects
Supervisors: Dr Agustïn Parise and Dr Donna Yates
Description: Wherever there are categories, ambiguous cases defy classification. This opens up a fundamental, intriguing question of law with its need for clarity and certainty: What challenges do law and legal institutions face when dealing with ambiguous, contested objects? The proposed research investigates this by studying the interaction of the law with several groups of ambiguous objects: fossils, human remains, meteorites, and amber. It undertakes to understand the challenges that law, legal institutions, and lawyers face and pave the way toward better legal protection for the palaeontological and geological heritage.

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: Henry Tari
Nationality: Iranian
Project: CoCoDa – Studying Systemic Risks on Online Platforms
Supervisors: Prof Dr Gijs van Dijck and Dr Konrad Kollnig
Description: The project has two main aims: 1) to combine existing technical data access methods with novel legal approaches like the DSA and create new technical methods on this foundation, and to 2) to advance current legally mandated platform data access methods and make them work in practice. This research will be grounded in mobile applications. By creating integrated “techno-legal” tools, the project supports regulators, researchers, and civil society in studying and mitigating systemic risks arising from data and control concentration in Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs).

Name: Lucas Giovanni Uberti-Bona Marin
Nationality: Spanish and Italian
Project: The risk of inaccurate accuracies: computational techniques for more accurate AI systems
Supervisors: Prof Dr Gijs van Dijck and Dr Konrad Kollnig
Description: AI systems can pose a multitude of risks. But can we build AI models that perform well while reducing risks and complying with applicable laws? This project aims to develop a toolbox to make AI models more aligned with the accuracy requirement under the 2024 EU AI Act and to appropriately determine how to implement accuracy in their specific use cases. Furthermore, possible gaps will be identified in existing regulations that may be overly vague or misaligned with current practices for accuracy implementation in AI models. The research will be carried out taking a case-driven approach, with use cases taken primarily from AI applications in medicine and education.

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: 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?

Name: Gaia Zoboli
Nationality: Italian
Project: Weaponising the Economy: Assessing the International Legal Framework of Unilateral Sectoral Sanctions
Supervisors: Prof Dr Jure Vidmar, Dr Alexandre Skander Galand and Dr Laura Visser
Description: Unilateral sectoral sanctions represent a grey area of international law, as they are considered tools of foreign policy at a crossroads between diplomacy and military force. While often used as instruments of economic warfare in inter-state relations, the implications of imposing unilateral sectoral sanctions remain unclear under international law. Indeed, these measures are generally not addressed from the perspective of the law governing armed force. This project aims to fill this gap by framing unilateral sectoral sanctions within the legal frameworks governing the use of armed force in international relations, namely jus ad bellum, jus in bello and their normative intersection.