Profile

Christina Eckes is professor of European law at the University of Amsterdam and director of the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG). She is also a member of the Governing Board of Amsterdam Centre of European Studies (ACES) and one of the leaders of the theme 'Europe in the World'.

Her current research interests are the separation of powers in 21st century Europe and strategic climate litigation in Europe. Her most recent publications examine the legal and factual exceptionalism of climate litigation, climate constitutionalisation, and the normative relevance of climate science in litigation.

She has published widely on the internal constitutional consequences of the European Union's external actions, a comprehensive account of which was published as a monograph entitled EU Powers under External Pressure - How the EU's External Actions Alter its Internal Structures (Oxford University Press, 2019). Previously, her research focussed more specifically on EU restrictive measures (EU sanctions) and the constitutional considerations surrounding these measures, including a monograph entitled EU Counter-Terrorist Policies and Fundamental Rights - The Case of Individual Sanctions (Oxford University Press, 2009) which is the leading text on this topic. 

Since 2022, Christina Eckes participates in two Horizon Europe projects (Red Spinel and Gem Diamond, led by Université Libre de Bruxelles). Her contributions to both focuses amongst other things on the role of climate governance in the growing dissensus on liberal democracy.

In 2020, she was awarded a NORFACE grant for the project Separation of powers for 21st century Europe (SepaRope). The project runs from September 2020 to August 2023 and investigates in combined horizontal and vertical studies how recent economic and political developments affect the EU’s institutional framework and the anchoring of EU decision-making in national legitimacy. It combines conceptual constitutional analysis with empirical research in three fields (Economic and Monetary Union, migration, trade), in which EU decision-making is controversial, rights-sensitive and illustrative of recent power shifts.

In 2011, she was awarded a personal research grant by the Dutch Scientific Organization (NWO) for her research project entitled:  Outside-In: Tracing the Imprint of the European Union's External Actions on Its Constitutional Landscape. She spent the academic year 2012/2013 as Emile Noël Fellow-in-residence at New York University and March to June 2014 as a visiting researcher at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

Christina Eckes joined the University of Amsterdam in September 2008. Previously, she completed her PhD research at the Centre of European Law at King's College London, which was fully funded by a university scholarship and worked as lecturer in EU law at the University of Surrey, UK (2007-2008). She also holds an LL.M (2003) from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, and passed First State Examination in Germany (2002).

Books 

EU Counter-Terrorist Policies and Fundamental Rights: The Case of Individual Sanctions

see reviews:  Luke A.R. Butler, European Law Review 2010, p. 739; Martin Scheinin, Yearbook of European Law 2010, p. 539; Cian Murphy, European Human Rights Law Review 2011, p. 120; Maria Tzanou, Common Market Law Review 2011, p. 2124; Iris Canor, Leiden Journal of International Law 2012, p. 243. 

Crime within the Area of Freedom Security and Justice: A European Public Order 

edited together with Theodore Konstadinides

see reviews: Elaine Fahey, Common Market Law Review 2011, p. 1737; Wanni Teo, Yearbook of European Law 2012, p. 1.

EU Powers under External Pressure

How the EU's External Actions Alter its Internal Structures 

Research Interests

• Institutional and constitutional relations in contemporary Europe
• External relations of the European Union
• Strategic Climate Litigation
• European human rights law
• Philosophical foundations of law
• Judicial review in a pluricontextual setting

Teaching

• Principles and Foundations of European Union Law (LL.M.)
• European Constitutional Law and Fundamental Rights (LL.M)
• Integration and Disintegration in EU law (LL.B)
• Europees Recht (LL.B)

Current PhD Researchers

• Sofie Fleerackers, Rule of Law in Climate Governance: Redefining Interest Representation (since 2022)
• Irthe de Jong, Citizen Particiation and Human Rights in Climate Governance (since 2022)
• Pramiti Parwani, The influence of EU and India on ‘capabilities’ of low-and-middle-income countries to ensure equitable access to vaccine in their territories: An analysis from TWAIL and Capabilities Approach (since 2021)
• Piotr Krajewski, 'Separation of Powers in EU Trade' (since 2020)
• Jochem de Kok, 'EU Foreign Direct Investment' (since 2020)
• Nathalie McNabb, 'The GDPR in Practice' (since 2019)
• Yannick van den Berg, 'Regulating consumers: A Practice Approach To Sustainable Consumption' (since 2019)
• Lara Talsma, 'The EU and womens rights and interests in conflict situations' (since 2018)

Past PhD Researchers

• Wiebe Hommes, ‘Reception of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Netherlands’ (defence planned in 2023)
• Teresa Cabrita, 'The EU in the International Law Commission' (defence planned for 11 Jan 2023)
• Anniek de Ruijter, ‘A Silent Revolution: The Expansion of EU Power in the Field of Human Health: A rights-based analysis of EU health law and policy’ (2009-2015)
• Vigjilenca Abazi, ‘Secrecy and Oversight in the European Union: The Law and Practice of Classified Information’ (2011-2015)
• Kathalijne Buitenweg, ‘The Quest for Representative Autonomy by the European Parliament’ (2013-2016)
• Or Brook, 'Coding non-competition interests under Article 101 TFEU: a quantitative and qualitative study' (2016-2019)

Separation of powers for 21st century Europe (SepaRope)

SepaRope is an empirically-grounded and comparative project rethinking the theory and practices of Separation of powers in present-day European Union. Separation of powers, the classic model of decision-making, entrusts different state functions to different branches (legislative, executive, judiciary) and serves the double purpose of ensuring collective will-formation and control of those in power.

The polyarchic and multilevel nature of the EU is not easily reconciled with the separation-of-powers-model, either at EU or national level.
SepaRope investigates in combined horizontal and vertical studies how recent economic and political developments affect the EU’s institutional framework and the anchoring of EU decision-making in national legitimacy. It combines conceptual constitutional analysis with empirical research in three fields (Economic and Monetary Union, migration, trade), in which EU decision-making is controversial, rights-sensitive and illustrative of recent power shifts.

SepaRope is funded through the NORFACE Governance programme.

EU Powers Under External Pressure - How the EU's External Actions Alter its Internal Structures

EU external actions have deep constitutional and institutional implications for EU law and practice. The EU has become an ever more active in international relations. With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU’s competences in external relations have again further strengthened. As a result, the EU has become ever more active in external relations. This has in turn intensifies the internal constitutional and institutional effects of EU external actions.

This book traces these legal effects and the broader constitutional implications, including potential integrative forces. EU external actions affect the power division between the EU and its Member States and between the different EU institutions; the unity and autonomy of the EU legal order; the role and position of Member States on the international plane; their autonomy; the relationship between national, international and EU law; and the ability of EU citizens to identify who is responsible for a particular action or policy, as well as their legitimate expectation that the EU takes action on their behalf.

The different chapters demonstrate how the interpretation of organizational principles, such as sincere cooperation, subsidiarity, primacy and coherence, changes in the context of external relations; how the choice of an external legal basis rather than an internal legal basis affects the powers of the Union and its Member States; what power shifts happen when policies are determined in international agreements, rather than in internal decision-making; and how EU participation in international dispute settlement mechanisms affects the autonomy and legitimacy of the EU.

This project was largely funded by an NWO veni grant.