Research questions
Four research questions drive the RIGHTS TO UNITE Project:
1: How can law enable societal interaction?
What is the specific character of interacting through practical usage of rights? Are there conceptions, constellations, and mechanisms to enforce rights which are prone to integrate or disintegrate societies?
2: What are the preconditions for the functionality of integration through rights in a multi-polar entity?
Can similar functions be fulfilled in the EU’s neighbourhood based on agreements such as the EEA Agreement and the agreements on the relationship with the UK?
3: Can we demonstrate citizens’ interactions though the practical use of rights in comparative research?
Four empirical questions emerge:
- Will judicial enforcement, enforcement through other formal channels such as ombuds or SOLVIT, and informal use of rights in political or grassroots campaigning render different results?
- Does success of practical use of rights differ between rights whose direct effect is not contested, rights deriving from EU harmonisation and rights deriving from instruments not creating formal legal obligations?
- How is the practical use of rights impacted through the continuum between supranationalism and intergovernmentalism represented by EU law on the one hand and the law of the UK EU trade and cooperation agreement on the other hand?
- How will rights have to be reconceptualised to adjust to the reality of the digital economy and society?
4: Under what conditions will practical usage of rights contribute to integrating European society, and what conditions are averse to those integration process?
Objectives and innovation
RIGHTS TO UNITE seeks to develop a new socio legal theory of European Integration, and to establish its validity through qualitative research, which then forms the basis for potentially positive scenarios of European integration. Qualitative comparative research covers the practice of EU-derived rights in four EU Member States (Czechia, Greece, Ireland, and Sweden) and four EU neighbourhood countries (Georgia, North Macedonia, Norway, and the UK, with special attention to Northern Ireland).
From integration through law to integration through rights
RIGHTS TO UNITE transcends the traditional narratives of European Integration as legal or political integration of states and regions. It establishes the relevance of rights as a specific form of interaction between citizens and researches the contribution of EU-derived rights for transnational and local interaction. It offers a detailed socio-legal analysis of the contradictory processes by which EU-derived rights are used and recognised by citizens in interaction with each other and with multi-polar political authority.
From a reduction of rights to human or transnational rights to an inclusive notion
The project stars from a broad concept of EU-derived rights which encompasses rights garnered by EU harmonising legislation aimed at shaping horizontal relationships, often governed by civil law in Member States, in addition to (human) rights directed against states and the EU itself. This new approach will give equal attention to transnational and local use of EU-derived rights.
From governance and differentiated integration to embracing the EU and its whole neighbourhood
Building on research on differentiated integration within and beyond the EU as well as literature on new modes of governance, RIGHTS TO UNITE extends the study of societal integration through rights beyond the EU itself into its Eastern, Southern, Northern and Western neighbourhood. It covers rights of 5 different qualities: (1) directly effective rights enforceable before national courts, (2) rights derived from supranational harmonisation (e.g. directives) requiring national implementation, (3) international law agreements with neighbouring states leading to justiciable obligations, (4) non-binding legal instruments within and beyond the EU, and (5) agreements between private actors aiming at complementing or replacing harmonisation within or beyond the EU.
From theorising potential disintegration through rights to a social actor concept of rights
Pushing against the judicial-centric literature on EU rights and EU integration, RIGHTS TO UNITE will develop a socio-legal theory on the conditions of effective use and adequate conception of right guarantees, while also highlighting risks of disintegration through rights. It will recognise the transsubjective dimension of rights through an interactive citizen-centred concept, moving the critique of EU-derived rights as neo-liberal beyond an institutional focus towards a social actor perspective, exploring in how far practical usage of those rights can improve citizens lives.
From institution-focused conceptions of EU law as the law of society to a citizen-centred approach
So far, research on EU law from societal perspectives remains focused on states and public (law) institutions. RIGHTS TO UNITE places individuals at the centre of the integration framework, with a new definition of the role of rights in European integration theory, capturing the process of integration through rights from a socio-economic actor perspective. It will focus on the way in which EU-derived rights create interaction between citizens, and accordingly develop the potential of integration of societies and economies through rights.