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The rise of international commercial courts : driving forces and institutional design
No full textDefence date: 03 May 2024Examining Board: Prof. Jürgen Kurtz (European University Institute, Supervisor); Prof. Mathias Siems (European University Institute); Prof. Xandra Kramer (Erasmus School of Law); Prof. Marta Pertegás Sender (Maastricht University)The dissertation explores the proliferation of international commercial courts around the world. International commercial courts are defined as domestic courts or divisions thereof that specialise, exclusively or not, in cross-border commercial disputes. Up until recently, the landscape had been dominated by the Commercial Court of England and Wales, instituted in 1895. However, since the turn of the 21st century, international commercial courts have been set up in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Singapore, China, Kazakhstan, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Plans to establish such courts are considered in the EU, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, Japan, India, and Iran. The objective of this dissertation is to offer a systematic study of the reasons motivating states to build international commercial courts. I do so by examining the driving forces behind such courts in connection with institutional design choices, treating the latter as an analytical window into the possible motivations of the states building them. I achieve this research objective through a combination of theoretical, historical, and socio-legal methods. The principles guiding my research are based on the comparative case-study and process tracing methods as developed in social science for the purposes of elucidating the causal mechanisms at play. The Commercial Court of England and Wales serves as a starting point of the case-study analysis due to its influential character. For this case study, I employ a historical method relying on archival research. For the remaining case studies concerning the Singapore International Commercial Court, the Netherlands Commercial Court, and international commercial courts in Germany, I supplement the documentary evidence with fieldwork in the form of semi-structured qualitative interviews. The argument developed through the dissertation is that contrary to dominant accounts, the explanatory power of exogenous factors such as regulatory competition, Brexit (in the EU context), and the desire to position a given country as a litigation centre, is limited. Rather, I argue that each individual court is driven by a combination of internal and external concerns and can only be explained through the analysis of national circumstances that are unique to each jurisdiction. By offering insight into these circumstances, this research unlocks the potential to derive lessons from the experience of a variety of jurisdictions, thereby informing the lawmakers’ effort to design more efficient mechanisms for cross-border commercial dispute settlement
Reconfiguring the social contract : individual outcomes and welfare state evolution in post-industrial societies
No full textDefence date: 04 October 2024Examining Board: Prof. Anton Hemerijck (European University Institute, Supervisor); Prof. Juho Härkönen (European University Institute, Co-supervisor); Prof. Louis Chauvel (University of Luxembourg); Prof. Margarita León (Universitat Autònoma Barcelona)Over the past few decades, welfare states have undergone significant transformations to address the emergence of new social risks, spurred by profound changes in the socioeconomic landscape. This evolution has been driven by the need to adapt to shifting demographics, changing family structures, and the evolving nature of labour markets. Despite these efforts, there remains a critical gap in research concerning the strategies deployed to recalibrate welfare states have achieved their intended goals and, importantly, whether the outcomes for those facing new social risks have improved as a result. This dissertation aims to answer an ambitious question: Does the post-war social contract, with its promise of security and equity, still hold firm, or has it begun to fray at the edges, leaving certain groups disproportionately disadvantaged? To provide an answer, it introduces an innovative analytical framework to the study of welfare states, conceptualizing them as entities bound by a social contract with three distinct layers: gender equality, inter-generational equity, and intra-generational justice. Through this framework, this work bridges the gap between macro-level trends in welfare state evolution and the micro-correlates of individual outcomes. Across these three dimensions, the overarching finding of this dissertation is that certain risk groups, and in particular nontraditional family structures and low-educated individuals, have witnessed a decline in their economic wellbeing. This dissertation contributes to welfare state research by highlighting the importance of considering individual outcomes, particularly for groups facing new social risks, and by integrating these outcomes into the broader context of welfare state regimes and policy landscapes. Through its multi-dimensional approach, it offers new insights into the evolution of the social contract in post-industrial societies, emphasizing the critical role of gender equality, inter-generational justice, and intra-generational equity in shaping welfare states.Chapter 3 'Three tales of gender equality in a postindustrial world' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as a Working Paper 'Three tales of gender equality in a post-industrial world' (2022
The strikes of May 1906 : empire, bureaucracy, and the nature of late Habsburg rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina
No full textDefence date: 05 June 2024Examining Board: Prof. Pieter M. Judson (European Universuty Institute, Supervisor); Prof. Benno Gammerl (European University Institue); Prof. Peter Becker (University of Vienna); Prof. Iva Lučić (Uppsala University)In May 1906, the Habsburg occupied territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina experienced an unprecedented level of labour unrest. From the forests near Zavidovići to the tobacco fields of Ljubuški, civil society actors as well as civil servants at different levels of the administrative hierarchy expected bureaucrats to intervene and to help settle the disputes. Scholarship examining the Habsburg Monarchy’s occupation and later annexation of the Ottoman vilayet of Bosnia and Herzegovina has long argued that Austro-Hungarian governance in the territory is best understood as absolutist and colonial. Such interpretations, however, tend to treat the central bureaucracy and the civil servants who staffed it as a uniform and coherent body, paying little attention to the ways in which administration was practiced on the ground. This thesis examines how late Habsburg rule functioned in Bosnia and Herzegovina by analysing the various ways administrators managed the strikes of May 1906 in order to understand the character of Austro-Hungarian administrative practice. Building on the approaches of new imperial history, I take as my starting point the idea that Habsburg administrators turned to context specific strategies when it came to governance and especially to managing social conflict. Through a close reading of the events of May 1906, I show that bureaucrats, but also women workers, private industrialists, military officers, and politicians actively discussed and advocated for their own visions of rule based on how they believed Habsburg civil servants should behave in a given context. Distinguishing between administrators working at various levels of the bureaucratic hierarchy, I demonstrate that civil servants often pursued different concerns during the strikes and that at times, their divergent interests led to disagreements and debate. Indeed, even in cases where actors used the same concept to support their version of rule, they often interpreted these ideas in different ways. In this moment, imperial rule was diverse and in many ways open-ended and could not be fully explained by the absolutist and colonial approaches.Introduction, conclusion and Chapter 1 'Civil Servants and Women Tobacco Workers in Sarajevo ' of the PhD thesis draw upon an earlier version published as an article 'The Sarajevo tobacco factory strike of 1906 : empire and the nature of late Habsburg rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina' (2022) in the journal 'Central European history'
Les Lumières au banc d’essai : science, économie et environnement autour de Jean Hellot (1685-1766)
No full textDefence date: 22 November 2024Examining Board: Prof. Stéphane Van Damme (European University Institute; École Normale Supérieure, Supervisor); Prof. Charlotte Guichard (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; École Normale Supérieure); Prof. Arnaud Orain (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales); Prof. Giorgio Riello (European University Institute)À travers le chimiste parisien Jean Hellot (1685-1766), cette thèse rend compte des interactions entre les pratiques savantes, la pensée économique, les rapports productifs et l’environnement au XVIIIe siècle. Jean Hellot est reconnu pour son implication savante et technologique dans la politique du Royaume, lorsque son expertise est mobilisée par l’Académie mais aussi l’État, à travers les instances de commerce et d’industrie, dans les domaines de la teinture textile, des mines, de la monnaie ou encore de la porcelaine, autant de matières qui font l’objet d’un vif intérêt des administrateurs au siècle des Lumières. Hellot représente typiquement cette figure de conseiller scientifique au service de l’État et du développement industriel, figure analysée dans les études historiographiques s’inscrivant à la croisée d’une histoire des sciences, des techniques et de l’histoire économique. Mais au-delà de la posture du savant qui, via des outils scientifiques, justifie et légitime une politique étatique, cette thèse examine aussi la façon dont les chimistes du XVIIIe siècle imposent leur propre vision économique et productive. Bien plus que des considérations purement techniques ou scientifiques qui seraient déterminantes dans l’emploi ou l’amélioration des arts des teintures, de la porcelaine, ou encore de l’exploitation des mines, Jean Hellot formalise une science de l’essai qui embrasse des enjeux environnementaux et commerciaux liés à l’intensification et la globalisation des échanges, qui confronte le savant à de nouvelles ressources et techniques, alimentées par la prospection coloniale. L’économie, la production et la doctrine économique sont à partir des années 1750 marquées par une période de transition souvent décrite par la montée en puissance du libéralisme. Plutôt que d’opposer la force de l’État intégré dans un Ancien Régime productif mercantiliste à celle du « marché » libéral, cette thèse révèle la façon dont se reconfigurent les pouvoirs, et place la focale sur celui de l’expertise chimique, qui se déploie en dehors de l’espace du laboratoire : que ce soit pour évaluer les marchandises, pour apporter des solutions aux problèmes environnementaux ou pour nourrir la promesse d’une transition énergétique basée sur le charbon, le savant chimiste Hellot amorce déjà la justification d’une « naturalisation » de l’intensification de l’exploitation des ressources et des effets collatéraux de l’industrialisation chimique et tinctoriale.Through the lens of the Parisian chemist Jean Hellot (1685-1766), this thesis explores the interactions between scholarly practices, economic thought, productive relationships, and the environment in the 18th century. Jean Hellot is renowned for his scholarly and technological involvement in the politics of the French Kingdom, when his expertise was mobilized by the French Académie des sciences and by the State, through the trade and industry authorities, in the fields of textile dyeing, mining, coinage, and porcelain, all subjects of keen interest to administrators in the Age of Enlightenment. Hellot is a typical example of a scientific advisor at the service of the state and industrial development, a figure analyzed in historiographical studies at the crossroads of science, technology and economic history. Beyond the posture of the scientist who, through scientific tools, justifies and legitimizes state policy, this thesis also examines the way in which 18th-century chemists imposed their own economic and productive vision. In addition to the purely technical or scientific considerations that would be decisive in the use or improvement of the arts of dyeing, the manufacturing of porcelain, or mining, Jean Hellot formalized a science of testing that embraced environmental and commercial issues linked to the intensification and globalization of trade which, fueled by colonial prospecting, confronted the scientist with new resources and techniques. From the 1750s onwards, production and economic doctrine were marked by a period of transition, often described as the rise of liberalism. Rather than opposing mercantilist Ancien Régime of production, with that of the liberal “market”, this thesis reveals the way in which powers were reconfigured, and places the focus on the chemical expertise, which was deployed outside the space of the laboratory. Whether evaluating goods, providing solutions to environmental problems or nurturing the promise of an energy transition based on coal, the chemist Hellot already justified a “naturalization” of the intensification of resource exploitation and the collateral effects of chemical and dye industrialization
A theory of legitimation in civil war : the justification of power and governance in the Colombian conflict
No full textDefence date: 20 February 2024Examining Board: Prof. Jeffrey T. Checkel (European University Institute, Supervisor); Prof. Stephanie Hofmann (European University Institute, Co-supervisor); Prof. Kristin M. Bakke (University College London); Prof. Michael Zurn (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin)When the rebel group FARC started to govern the rural communities of Santa Rosa and Buenavista in central Colombia in the 1990s, both communities thought the rebels to be legitimate. Yet, by the mid-2000s, despite similar dynamics of FARC governance, the two communities differed in their legitimacy beliefs towards the FARC: Buenavista was still supportive of the rebels, but Santa Rosa was no longer. What explains local variation in the legitimacy of armed actors during civil war? Existing scholarship fails to account for such variation as it pre-specifies ‘sources of legitimacy’, considers beliefs about rightful rule as static and sees legitimation as isolated from network dynamics. Conversely, this thesis argues that civil wars are contexts of complex governance networks, where civilians are confronted with different armed actors’ governance simultaneously over time. Legitimation should therefore be understood as a process of congruence-finding, an aligning of the normative beliefs of ruler and ruled, with more congruence giving rise to stabler governance practices. These normative beliefs can change through network mechanisms both within and across governance relations. Combining process tracing with four months of immersive fieldwork in central Colombia, the thesis tests this theory of legitimation with a most-similar case design of the rural communities of Buenavista and Santa Rosa. Local variation in the legitimacy of the FARC, it finds, cannot be explained by dynamics within the relation between the FARC and each community but by network effects, particularly the role of the state in Buenavista. The thesis pushes forward our understanding of the relationship between legitimation processes and governance networks by (a) offering a theory of congruence-finding that can capture and explain legitimation dynamics in complex governance networks; (b) specifying several mechanisms of how beliefs change endogenously to governance networks; and (c) contributing to the link between rebel governance and (self-)legitimation and its significance for the Colombian conflict.Chapter 3 'Relational theory of legitimation' of the PhD thesis was published as an article 'Legitimate governance in international politics : towards a relational theory of legitimation' (2024) in the 'Review of international studies'
The floating revolution : radical mobilities, organisation and practices in the western Mediterranean, 1850-1874
No full textDefence date: 27 September 2024Examining Board: Prof. Lucy Riall (European University Intitute, Supervisor); Prof. Pieter M. Judson (European University Institute); Prof. Maurizio Isabella (Queen Mary University of London); Prof. Jeanne Moisand (Université Paris Nanterre)The aim of this dissertation is to show how a heterogeneous and transnational revolutionary political culture had a profound impact on the evolution of states and polities in the western Mediterranean in the quarter-century following the 1848 revolutions. It focuses on events in the Italian Peninsula, southern France, Spain, and Algeria to argue that political radicals acting in these areas saw themselves as part of a transnational community, that the interconnected maritime world of the Mediterranean influenced the trajectory of their political projects, and that they had a significant impact on the political evolution of the areas they operated in. To bring out the significance of the radicals’ actions, the dissertation follows them across the sea to examine specific moments and processes in which they sought to shape new worlds for themselves. These include attempts to foment a large-scale insurrection in the Italian Peninsula in 1857, the logistics that underpinned Giuseppe Garibaldi’s campaign in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 1860, the preparation and fallout from the so-called “Glorious” Revolution in Cadiz in 1868, the aftermath of the collapse of the French Second Empire in Marseille and Algiers in 1870- 1871, and political life in Barcelona in the early days of the Spanish First Republic. I connect these moments to each other, to their transnational Mediterranean context, and to the wider consequences they had for the radicals themselves and for the political structures they impacted. The multifaceted experiences of political radicalism in the western Mediterranean offer further proof that the Age of Revolutions continued here well beyond its traditional cut-off point in 1848-49. Ultimately, my thesis brings together into a common narrative the heavily nationalised histories of these nineteenth-century radicalisms, while also stressing their significance for processes of state-building, colonialism, and economic globalisation.Chapter 1 'Building the floating revolution: Livorno, Genoa, Sapri, 1857' and chapter 2 'Ships, guns and money: the logistics of revolution and Garibaldi’s campaign of 1860' of the PhD thesis were publisehd as an article 'Ships, guns and money: the logistics of revolution and Garibaldi’s campaign of 1860' (2024) in the journal 'Past & Present
(Un)avoidable tragedy : the difficulty in realising outer space governance
No full textDefence date: 26 April 2024Examining Board: Prof. Peter Drahos (European University Institute, Supervisor); Prof. Arnulf Becker Lorca (European University Institute); Prof. Tanja Masson-Zwaan (Leiden University); Prof. Vito de Lucia (University of Tromsø)This study examines two ongoing developments in outer space: the deterioration of near-Earth space through increasing use, increasing complexity, and the proliferation of space debris; and the return to the Moon to use, exploit, and extract lunar resources. The issues arising from these developments – from environmental tragedy and competition over resources to conflict and the (re-)production of socio-economic inequality – raise the question whether governance can be realised that addresses these developments. Employing a critical legal approach and building on (global) commons scholarship, this study asserts that powerful states, particularly the US, impede the development of outer space governance that is egalitarian and addresses the unsustainable use of outer space. Rather, these states – driven by capital and national security interests – entrench and maintain the norm that brings about inegalitarianism and unsustainable use: the unfettered freedom of use. Although there are approaches that seek to counter the influence of powerful states on the international legal order, they are unlikely to succeed in light of the structural issues posed by capital and national security interests, the uniquely dominant position of the US (especially in outer space), and the lack of bargaining power of weaker states. Revealing these structural issues contributes not just to thinking about outer space governance but also to thinking on the global commons more broadly
The power of language : the use, effect, and spread of gender-inclusive language
No full textDefence date: 08 November 2024Examining Board: Prof. Arnout van de Rijt (European University Institute); Prof. Klarita Gërxhani (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Prof. Katrin Auspurg (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München); Prof. Lena Hipp (WZB Social Science Research Center Berlin; University of Potsdam)This dissertation investigates a new social phenomenon: the use of gender-inclusive language (GIL). Leveraging language as a strategic research site, this dissertation contributes to understanding a current social phenomenon in Germany and advances the sociological understanding of how behavioural change occurs and is experienced. As the title suggests, the thesis has three distinct contributions. First, it traces the use of GIL in news media in Germany since 2000. It documents an unexpectedly rapid increase in GIL and explores how this may be explained based on the patterns of use in different news media over time. Second, it tests the effect of GIL using a digital field experiment on a crowd-working platform. It finds no change in behaviour when GIL is used. Third, it quantitatively establishes that the use of GIL in the German media has plateaued as of 2022, which is referred to as incipient change, i.e. a situation where two competing behaviours exist. It, therefore, turns to qualitative interviews to explore how individuals experience and navigate this situation of two competing behaviours. Overall, this dissertation empirically establishes and documents the rise of a new phenomenon, tests its behavioural effect, and explores how individuals navigate a state of incipient change.Chapter 2 'Words of change : the increase of gender-inclusive language in German media' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Words of change : the increase of gender-inclusive language in German media' (2024) in the journal 'European sociological review'
Hard times in the Levant : trade, mobility and kinship in the early modern Mediterranean (1680s-1710s)
No full textDefence date: 18 November 2024Examining Board: Prof. Giancarlo L. Casale (European University Institute, Supervisor); Prof. Andrea Addobbati (University of Pisa); Prof. Ann Thomson (European University Institute); Prof. Francesca Trivellato (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)This dissertation examines the Tuscan traders who trafficked in the Levant at the turn of the eighteenth century. Unlike the more intensively studied merchant communities of France, Venice, the Netherlands and England, whose activities left long paper trails in the state and company archives of their respective “nations,” the story of these Tuscan economic emigrants has never been studied before. As such, their experience opens up new questions about working and living conditions in Ottoman Syria in the early modern age. This study therefore focuses on both the arc of their physical mobility and the mercantile networks in which these merchants inserted themselves in the midst of the great military and commercial rivalry between France and England in the Mediterranean theatre. Indeed, it was in the late seventeenth century that competition between European powers, notably England, France and the Dutch Republic, for the lucrative Levantine trading markets was reinvigorated. The flourishing profits made by the merchants of these nations between 1670s and 1710s reflected a period of intensifying European commercial interest in the region despite the difficult geopolitical context. When conflicts, reciprocal trade blockades, piracy, and fluctuating relations with the Ottoman administration undermined the stability of the maritime trade, European competition for Levantine market share created a new opening for the subjects of small neutral Italian states—as was the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from 1640s onwards—who worked alternately for the Levant Company or the merchants of the Chamber of Commerce of Marseille system. Specifically, the life and activities of two Tuscan merchant brothers, Francesco and Domenico Adami (1654–1702; 1655–1715), who left the port of Livorno in 1686 to gradually move towards the Eastern Mediterranean, will be analysed here. During their long period abroad, the Adami brothers experienced trading in the Levant in difficult times, a period bracketed by the War of Morea (1684–99) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–14), during which they found themselves under the protection of European powers in conflict with each other at the macro level but interested in maintaining stable and reciprocal trade flows at the micro one. Describing these individual migratory experiences in such complex scenarios has been made possible by the discovery of the extraordinary testimony left behind by the two merchants, including their private and commercial correspondence, amassed over some 30 years spent in business on the coasts of Ottoman Syria.Part II 'A time of depression and obscurantism? The Mediterranean and the Grand
Duchy of Tuscany in the seventeenth century' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Reinterpreting the Tuscan economy in the long seventeenth century : new perspectives for research from two rediscovered archives' (2023) in the journal 'Journal of European economic history'
Roads to the establishment : how challengers become mainstream
No full textDefence date: 12 September 2024Examining Board: Prof. Ellen Immergut (European University Institute, Supervisor); Prof. Simon Hix (European University Institute); Prof. Heike Kluver (Humboldt University of Berlin); Prof. Sergi Pardos-Prado (University of Glasgow)The author received an Honourable Mention for the 2025 Ernst B. Haas Best Dissertation Award by the American Political Science Association.How do challenger parties establish themselves in Western European party systems? In this dissertation, I analyse in four empirical contributions how Green and radical right parties change programmatically and how they extend their support base. The first chapter traces the evolution of challenger parties in Western Europe, reviews existing explanatory approaches and proposes issue and social group yield theory as the theoretical foundations of this thesis. Chapter 2 examines the role of intra-party cohesion in issue diversification. Using a multilingual transformer model to measure intra-party cohesion, the chapter finds that radical right and Green parties are the most cohesive parties on their core issues. However, while cohesion leads to more salience and clarity on core issues, it is less important for peripheral issues on which party supporters prefer ambiguity. My third chapter scrutinises how the socio-economic context shapes the framing of migration by the radical right. Analysing social media posts, classified by large language models, demonstrates that the radical right primarily relies on nationalist and identity-based frames of migration, particularly in districts with economic or cultural grievances. Moreover, once the radical right poses an electoral threat, the centre-right adopts similar cultural frames, whereas the centre-left frames migration more positively. My fourth chapter probes whether appointing group spokespersons increases persuasion in political justifications. The results from a 2×2 survey experiment indicate that group spokespersons are as persuasive as other politicians. Yet, they positively affect how group sympathisers think of a policy advancing the group’s interests. By contrast, they reduce policy support for salient issues. The fifth chapter scrutinises whether the radical right’s gender appeals contribute to the gender gap in far-right support. Combining panel data with data on the party branches’ gender appeals, the evidence shows a heavy reliance of the radical right on conservative gender appeals. These have a mobilising effect for male but not for female voters