Leiden Law School At ELU-S Annual Conference In Lisbon

Europa Instituut

The Europa Institute is Leiden Law School's centre for research and teaching on the European Union, covering the EU's constitutional foundations, its internal market and external relations, and the legal challenges posed by digitalisation, migration, and pressures on the rule of law. Eight of its researchers took part in the conference, as panel organisers, chairs, discussants, and speakers. Their contributions spanned the interpretation of Article 2 TEU and the rule of law, the preliminary reference procedure, trade and financial regulation, EU external relations, and the implications of artificial intelligence for administrative decision-making - a range that mirrors the conference's own question of how the values Europe proclaims are given effect in practice.

Martijn van den Brink

Beyond his role in the ELU-S Secretariat, Martijn van den Brink contributed to three panels. He presented 'EU Values and the Demise of Constitutional Prudence' on the panel 'Critical Perspectives on Article 2 TEU', and 'Recognising Intersectionality in EU Non-discrimination Law: Promising Solution or Hollow Hope?' on the panel 'Neither In nor Out: Liminal Rights Holders in EU Law'. He further acted as discussant on the panel 'Beneath the Constitutional Values of the European Union: Power and Resource Dynamics'.

Barbora Budinská

Barbora Budinská spoke on the panel 'EU Law and Financial Stability: Friends or Foes', with a paper on 'Competitiveness and financial stability: EU law caught between simplification and deregulation'. She also presented 'On the broadening of the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice in the preliminary ruling procedure: the curious case of withdrawals', co-authored with Zuzana Vikarská (Masaryk University) and Ladislav Kováč (Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic), on the panel 'A Disrupted Dialogue? The Preliminary Reference Procedure in Practice'.

Vincent Delhomme

An 'author meets reader' panel was devoted to Vincent Delhomme's forthcoming monograph Regulating Unhealthy Lifestyles in the European Union (Cambridge University Press, 2026), which examines how EU law engages with the regulation of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy foods. The session was chaired by Anne-Lise Sibony (UCLouvain), with Tamara Hervey (City St George's, University of London) and Hanna Schebesta (Wageningen University & Research) as discussants.

Tine Deschuytere

Tine Deschuytere presented her paper 'Green trade or green myth? Environmental services and the EU's sustainable trade policy' on the panel 'Critical Perspectives on EU Trade Law and Policy'. She further joined the roundtable 'The WTO Is Dead, Long Live the EU!' as a discussant, which considered how the EU has responded to the decline of the multilateral trade order.

Melanie Fink

On one of four panels devoted to 'European Law and the Challenge of Artificial Intelligence', Melanie Fink presented 'Automated Reason-Giving: Why Human Explanations Matter'. AI systems are increasingly used not only to produce the decisions that have to be explained, but also to draft the explanations themselves, which raises a question that has so far gone largely unasked: does it matter whether the reasons come from a human or a machine? The paper forms part of her NWO-Veni project on administrative justice in the automated state (2025-2028). She is currently finalising an article on the topic, which will be published in the coming months.

Anna Krisztián

Anna Krisztián organised and chaired the roundtable titled 'How to Publish? Advice for Young Lawyers', which brought together editors of several EU law journals to offer guidance to junior academics on publishing their work in academic journals. The panel included Joana Mendes (University of Luxembourg), Paul James Cardwell (King's College London), Marijn van der Sluis (Maastricht University), Jan Komarek (Charles University), and Niamh Nic Shuibhne (University of Edinburgh), and closed with a Q&A with the audience.

Joris Larik

During an 'author meets reader' panel, the third, fully revised edition of EU External Relations Law: Text, Cases and Materials (Hart Publishing 2026), co-edited by Ramses Wessel and Joris Larik, was presented and discussed. Moreover, Joris spoke on the topic 'Uncomfortable Truths About EU Strategic Autonomy: Law, Values, and Trade-Offs' as part of a panel on 'EU Law's Geopolitical Turn?'.

Darinka Piqani

In a panel entitled 'Restoring the Rule of Law', Darinka Piqani presented her research findings on judicial vetting and its impact on the rule of law in the case of Albania as a candidate country for EU membership. The panel included Dimitry Kochenov, Marcin Mrowicki, Jacquelyn Veraldi, and Elena Basheska, all scholars at the CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest. In another panel entitled 'Understanding the rule of law as a constitutional principle in the EU legal order', she reflected on the emergence of the rule of law as a constitutional principle in the EU legal order and implications for the Member States and the EU.

ConsumerID (Institute of Private Law)

In a panel entitled 'The Foundations of European Consumer Law Revisited', Vanessa Mak and three PhD candidates involved in the ConsumerID research group presented the interim findings of their research. ConsumerID brings together the researchers working on Vanessa Mak's NWO Vici project 'These Shoes Don't Fit! How can consumer interests be protected when consumer identities are increasingly diffuse?' at the Institute of Private Law. The project centres on the question if the one-size-fits-all model of European consumer law still fits with the requirements of consumer protection in digital markets and in relation to sustainability. Deconstructing that framework, the question is what alternative notions of the consumer can replace and/or supplement EU law's 'average consumer'. An overarching question informing the enquiry is what role private law, in particular contract and tort law, have in the EU's pursuit of social goals and the safeguarding of constitutional values.

Laura Bakola

Laura Bakola analysed the position of the 'prosumer'. She argued that platformisation has produced new categories of sellers whose relationship with powerful intermediaries demands a recalibration of liability rules, drawing on empirical research to inform a legal-doctrinal analysis.

Carolina Lisboa Pinto

Carolina Lisboa Pinto focused on 'digital consumers', analysing how algorithmic profiling in online marketplaces infers and exploits consumer traits, often without consumers' awareness. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD), so she argued, can provide a basis for consumer protection if the interpretation of its central concepts is re-imagined.

Anna D'Agostino

Anna D'Agostino examined the 'consumer-citizen'. She unpacked the concept of the 'responsibilisation' of consumers through private law and regulation and the potential, but unintended backlash that this approach may have on consumer behaviour.

Vanessa Mak

Vanessa Mak examined whether European consumer and contract law can function as windows for integrating the values embodied in the EU Treaties into the technical rules of private law, with a view to realising effective protection of digital consumers and sustainable consumption. Her argument focused on the 'framed autonomy' characterising European contract law, through which freedom of contract finds expression (e.g. in Art. 16 and 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights on the freedom to conduct a business and the right of property); and its balancing with other interests, in particular the (collective) protection of consumers in the EU.

The strong presence of Leiden researchers at the conference highlights Leiden Law School's broad engagement with the conference theme. Their diverse contributions brought different perspectives to the discussions and helped strengthen the School's international academic network, creating opportunities for continued collaboration and exchange in future editions of the conference.