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Climate action at the crossroads : the making and unmaking of stringent climate policies in the building sector
No full textDefence date: 23 January 2026Examining Board: Prof. Ellen Immergut (European University Institute, Supervisor); Prof. Emiliano Grossman (Sciences Po Paris); Prof. Anton Hemerijck (European University Institute); Prof. Natascha Van der Zwan (University of Groningen)This thesis investigates why and how governments pursue climate policies, with high distributional costs and political risks, in the building sector— a politically sensitive area that directly affects citizens, involves powerful interest groups, and accounts for approximately 40% of energy consumption in the EU. Existing accounts in comparative political economy often emphasise either electoral incentives or interest group pressure to explain policy change, but such approaches in isolation are insufficient to account for these outcomes. By adopting a policy cycle perspective, this thesis traces how the relative influence of electoral politics and interest groups shifts across agenda-setting, policy adoption, and implementation. This framework also provides a more detailed analysis of the role of agency, particularly the role of climate policy entrepreneurs, in shaping reform trajectories and durability. The analysis draws on comparative case studies of climate command-and-control regulations in France and Germany, using process tracing. Findings show that green coalitions led by NGOs and think tanks are crucial for placing specific solutions to the problem of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector on the agenda and for shaping policy design. Yet ambitious reforms are only adopted when elected politicians who champion climate action hold influence in government and act as climate political entrepreneurs. During implementation, reforms face resistance from incumbent interests and other elected politicians, which results in preventive erosion. Distributional effects are central throughout: who bears the costs and the benefits shapes coalition dynamics and determines the political viability of reforms. All in all, this dissertation contributes to the fields of comparative political economy, climate politics and public policy by adopting a processual approach to policy change and unpacking the mechanisms through which climate policies with significant costs are enacted, to then be eroded during implementation. More broadly, the study contributes a socio-political account of climate policymaking that highlights the mechanisms through which democratic capitalist systems can, under certain conditions, break free from their carbon lock-in
Histoire globale
No full textPublished online: 17 September 2025On pratique désormais une approche « globale » pour un grand nombre de thèmes, de l’histoire du genre à celle de la diplomatie, de l’histoire économique à celle des phénomènes culturels. Le programme scientifique de « globalisation de l’histoire » va de pair avec la définition d’objets historiques qui soient transnationaux, souvent transculturels et presque toujours présentés comme « globaux ». Adopter des méthodologies d’analyse globales nécessite, avant tout, une compréhension approfondie de la manière dont les questions posées par les historiens à l’échelle locale et nationale doivent être reformulées et repensées dans le contexte d’histoires interconnectées, comparatives et enchevêtrées. Telle est la leçon que nombre d’entre nous – historiens de la France, de l’Angleterre ou du monde – ont apprise de Philippe Minard. Se fondant sur l’expertise qu’il avait acquise en histoire économique franco-britannique comparée, Philippe fut un grand promoteur de l’histoire globale en France en encourageant la réflexion méthodologique et en promouvant les traductions en français d’oeuvres comme The Great Divergence
The Hungarian Constitutional Court : from a target to an agent of autocratization
No full textPublished online: 20 January 2026The article examines the impact of autocratization on the resilience of the Hungarian Constitutional Court following the Fidesz government’s substantial alterations to the institutional design of constitutional review. The analysis of the captured Court’s jurisprudence explores various judicial strategies that serve the interests of the autocratic regime. It reveals how abusive constitutional review has evolved in both scale and degree, resulting in the Court’s active role in dismantling the remaining channels of constitutional resilience, while simultaneously contributing to the façade of legalistic legitimacy. The article argues that the institution, once internationally renowned, became a reliable partner of the autocratic government
Street mobilisation during election campaigns in multilevel systems : a supply–demand analysis
No full textPublished online: 05 March 2026Election campaigns are periods of heightened political competition and opportunities for change. This research note examines whether such politicisation leads to increased street mobilisation, both in terms of who organises (supply) and who participates (demand). On the supply side, a ‘professionalisation’ of protest is expected, with more active institutional political and civil society actors. On the demand side, participation should rise. Relying on original protest event data from Germany (2000–2023), the analysis shows that campaign periods boost protest overall. Yet responses vary by election level: all groups mobilise most during first-order national elections. Regarding second-order elections, civil society actors and citizens respond more to subnational elections, suggesting localised protest dynamics, while institutional political actors focus on EU elections. This study adds to understanding how multi-level governance shapes ‘unconventional’ political behaviour and highlights the alignment and divergence between citizen activism and elite strategies during election campaigns
Hidden, indirect and ulterior purpose review by regional human rights courts : comparing the cases against Azerbaijan and Venezuela
No full textPublished online: 15 January 2026In their advancement of the third wave of autocratisation, states are cloaking their restrictions on human rights and freedoms with so-called ‘legitimate aims’ to avoid accountability under human rights treaties. One response mechanism available to regional human rights courts in this context is to question the motivation of states through the doctrine of misuse of power. This article examines two bodies of jurisprudence in which this doctrine has been applied: the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments against Azerbaijan and Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) judgments against Venezuela. The article finds that the ECtHR has applied the doctrine rather restrictively under Article 18 ECHR; meanwhile, the IACtHR has applied the doctrine more broadly and directly under various rights provisions in the ACHR. This challenges the previous parallels drawn in scholarship between Article 18 ECHR and Article 30 ACHR, and further explains why the IACtHR can be more proactive in its detection of misuses of power, identifying ulterior purposes in a broader array of contexts
International courts, cross-references and identity-building
No full textPublished online: 06 February 2026In an era of increasing multi-fora litigation, international adjudicators regularly engage with the work of other actors, generating a dense web of cross-references. While much has been written about the legal and systemic effects of this practice – such as mitigating fragmentation and fostering judicial dialogue – this article explores a lesser-studied function: the role of cross-references in the discursive self-presentation of international adjudicators. It terms this process “identity intertextualism” and explores how textual cues contribute to adjudicators’ efforts to position themselves within a broader network of institutions and actors. Drawing on a close reading of rulings from the European Court of Human Rights in the inter-state applications brought by Georgia against Russia, the article offers an initial theoretical account and an exploratory illustration of how cross-references participate in judicial identity-building. Through this lens, multi-fora litigation appears not merely as a site of strategic forum shopping but also as a space where adjudicators articulate and perform their institutional identity
‘Just learning the languages of India …’ : worlds of translation in Daniello Bartoli’s 'Missione al Gran Mogor' (1663)
No full textPublished online: 16 February 2026This chapter explores the cultural and linguistic dimensions of Daniello Bartoli’s Missione al Gran Mogor (1663), a hagiographic and historiographical account of the Jesuit mission to the Mughal court of Emperor Akbar the Great (1542–1605), led by Rodolfo Acquaviva SJ (1550–1583) in the years right before his martyrdom. By drawing on the extensive archival material preserved in the Archivum historicum of the Society of Jesus in Rome, Bartoli provides insight into the Jesuits’ early efforts to engage with the religious, linguistic, and political complexity of the Mughal Empire and offers a rich account of how linguistic practices – such as the study of Persian and the translation of Christian texts – had become central to the missionary enterprise
From gender to genders : a history of shifting paradigms?
No full textThe authors examine the link between identity and power in recent controversies over gender-inclusive language. Their analysis then focuses on two case-studies: the place of hermaphroditism in early modern Spanish medicine and gender sub-cultures in 1920s Berlin. These casestudies illuminate how struggles over language are central to broader political conflicts over identity, belonging, and the maintenance of the gender binary
Intergovernmental action above, below and alongside the European Union : the law and practice of parallel and partial agreements between member states
No full textDefence date: 18 February 2022Examining Board: Professor Bruno de Witte (European University Insitute) ; Professor Marise Cremona (European University Institute) ; Professor Daniel Thym (Universität Konstanz) ; Professor Bernardus Smulders (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/European Commission)In the last decades, the EU has gradually become Member States’ preferred vehicle through which they deepen intra-European cooperation. In that context, they act mainly through the European Union and its institutional apparatus, which they have endowed with defined missions and for the benefit of which they have limited their sovereign rights. Yet the establishment of the Union has also given rise to a Union system lato sensu outside the Union legal order stricto sensu but within the broader system of public international law within which that order is situated. In this grey area, Member States act collectively, alongside, below and above the Union in close connection with its integration agenda, by way of treaties governed by international law. In a cases-based analysis, this research unpacks those forms of intergovernmental action, from the early days of the EEC up until now. The thesis investigates the following questions: How to differentiate action through and outside the Union? Why do Member States take the intergovernmental route when they could have acted through the Union? What is the effect of ‘reverting to international law’ on the development of the Union and its institutional balance? And conversely how does Union law and its development affect the ways in which Member States act collectively outside the Union framework? The thesis ultimately nuances the dominant view that sees intergovernmental action in a negative normative light. In the current constitutional context, acting intergovernmental does carry significant risks in terms of legal compliance, accountability, and transparency. Yet many intergovernmental accords, it is argued, enhance, or protect the foundational trust between Member States and vis-à-vis the Union that makes common action possible
The geopolitics of EU enlargement : from club to commons
No full textPublished online: 25 July 2024Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine changed the European Union’s attitude towards enlargement. Whereas five years previously European leaders had suggested that any expansion of the EU should be put on hold, suddenly they embraced potential membership for Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and the Western Balkans. Enlargement is the strongest instrument that the EU has to bring stability to and foster reform in bordering countries. But that strategy invites risk. Countries might join before their democracies are stable and before European institutions are ready to accommodate a wider and more diverse membership. Nevertheless, enlargement is better than the alternative. Russian victory over Ukraine would threaten not only the security of the EU but also the functioning of the single market, efforts to fight inflation and the stability of the financial system. The EU needs enlargement to protect the European commons.This research was supported by the project BRRIDGE: 'Building capacities for excellent research and innovation in democracy and policy through networking, knowledge and experience transfer' financed by the European Research Council under the grant agreement 101079219