Rights to unite

Rights to unite

ERC Project 2024-2028

Integration through rights in a European Society? A new theory on the role of law for integration within and beyond a fractured EU, based on comparative qualitative research. That research will compare the practice of EU-derived rights in Czechia, Greece, Ireland, Sweden (all EU Member States) and Georgia, North Macedonia, Norway, and Northern Ireland (all [part of] EU neighbouring states).

Why rights

Why rights?

Rights are the tangible element of law for individuals: they empower through giving agency and are also a powerful concept in political and even social discourse. Rights may be used to defend a personal sphere as well as for interaction: retrieving information, gathering and speaking to each other, interacting on markets on fair conditions and without discrimination, forming and designing content are activities relying on rights. Integration through rights captures that interactional dimension.

Private law and eu (dis)integration

Rethinking EU integration

Theorising EU integration is frequently focused on political institutions, and public law remains the dominant focus of legal research on the European Union. RIGHTS TO UNITE changes the focus by proposing that true integration is found in societal integration. Societalization is used as a concept to capture the relationships generated by EU law. Building on practices in comparative law and sociological scholarship, we explore how natural persons use EU-derived rights in their daily lives, taking a bottom-up approach to integration.
Interdisciplinarity

Interdisciplinarity

RIGHTS TO UNITE is a socio-legal project, moving across many disciplines including law, political science, sociology and political and legal philosophy. The project relies on legal analysis, interviews and focus groups to develop a new theory of European integration through rights.

Researching rights practice within and beyond borders

Researching rights practice within and beyond borders

Whereas European integration research often focuses on cross-border exchanges within the external frontiers of the EU, RIGHTS TO UNITE investigates how integration through rights can take place in non-transborder situations, and yet may extend beyond the external borders of the EU. RIGHTS TO UNITE explores how the usage of rights enhances or inhibits integration of societies (societalization) at local, national and European levels in the EU and its neighbourhood.