European Law and Legal Studies Research
The Centre for European Law and Legal Studies is committed to research in European Legal Studies beyond doctrinal legal towards socio-legal inquiry.
CELLS research deals with the EU's contribution towards global social justice.
European and International Equality Law
EU and international equality law prohibit discrimination on the grounds of ever more characteristics. We specialise in the fields of gender equality, disability politics and racism and the law, and research consequences of multiplying of discrimination grounds.
The Centre hosts a series of conferences reflecting critically on European Multidimensional Equality Law (Dagmar Schiek). It is also part of the EU Academic Network of Experts on Disability (ANED) and of a project on Fundamental Rights of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities and Persons with Mental Health Problems (Anna Lawson). For 2011, it also hosts the project Practical Impact of EU Equality Directives in Italian and UK Employment Law (Alberto Lepore).
Researchers: Ana Laura Aiello, Ann Blair, Anna Lawson, Alberto Lepore, Annick Masselot, Helen Meenan, Jule Mulder, Liz Oliver, Dagmar Schiek, Iyiola Solanke.
Governance and legitimacy in Europe
We research models for enhancing the legitimacy of legal entities beyond nation states, including trans-national adjudication, contractual governance (e.g., in health care), and governance by non-state actors.
CELLS is represented in the European Research Project "Reflexive Governance in the Public Interest" (Peter Vincent-Jones, Caroline Mullen).
Researchers: Caroline Mullen, Michael Cardwell, Oliver Gerstenberg, Jennifer Hendry, Ludivine Petetin, Dagmar Schiek, Peter Vincent-Jones
Economic and Social Constitutionalism
Constitutionalising Europe is said to engender frictions between economic and social integration. Our research reflects on this in fields such as agriculture, employment, industrial relations, education and services of general interest.
The centre has successfully hosted an interdisciplinary research group on European Economic and Social Constitutionalism after the Treaty of Lisbon (Dagmar Schiek and Andrea Gideon), whose results are now being published (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press). It also participates in the project Industrial action and the peace obligation on the internal market in Europe (Dagmar Schiek and Jule Mulder). The Marie Curie Re-Integration project on Credit and Debt: protecting the vulnerable in Europe (Mel Kenny) has now moved to Leicester (see below sub "external members"). We are currently working on Economic and Social Integration in the EU and Beyond – Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Jean Monnet ad personam chair) (Dagmar Schiek and Andrea Gideon).
Researchers: Michael Cardwell, Andrea Gideon, Jennifer Hendry, Mel Kenny, Pilar Milla Marin, Jule Mulder, John McMullen, Dagmar Schiek, Neil Stanley, Peter Vincent-Jones.
Research Projects
For full details of our current and recent projects, please see the research projects page.
More information
If you have any questions regarding research carried out in the School of Law, please email Lindsey Hill.