Conference: The Judicial Deconstruction of Union Citizenship

International Conference on the limits of free movement and solidarity in the EU within the context of the Arbeitskreis Europäische Integration e.V. (a founding member of the European Community Studies Association ECSA) and the Cluster of Excellence ‘Cultural Foundations of Social Integration’ at the University of Konstanz.

Venue and Timing

The conference will take place on 28 April (Thursday: all day) and 29 April 2016 (Friday: half day) at the University of Konstanz in the meeting hall of the university senate (room V1001). The city of Konstanz can be reached easily via a direct train connection to Zurich airport; further information can be obtained from Felix Weber.

Participation and Registration

Participation is free of charge. Those wishing to registrate shall send an email to Felix Weber indicating their name, position, institutional affiliation and email address. 

Programme

The free movement of persons is central to the legal and political identity of the European project and the Court of Justice famously maintained that citizens from other Member States may expect ‘a certain degree of financial solidarity.’ For more than a decade, innovative judgments from Luxembourg captured the imagination of academics working on Union law, in particular concerning the access to social benefits. However, the expansionary potential of Union citizenship seems to have met its limits when the Court of Justice declined equal treatment rights to those who do not work or are looking for jobs in a number of recent judgments. This contrasts with the optimistic outlook on transnational citizenship which had defined many academic contributions. The time has come, therefore, for academic commentators to consider the limits of Union citizenship. This conference will confront this challenge by embedding ongoing legal debates in a broader constitutional and theoretical analysis about how to accommodate social solidarity and transnational mobility. It will explore in how far debates about Union citizenship can be connected to wider discussions about the treatment of foreigners.

Speakers and Discussants: Dora Kostakopoulou, Niamh Nic Shuibhne, Dimitry Kochenov, Urska Sadl, Daniel Thym, Susanne K. Schmidt (tbc), Paul Minderhoud, Ferdinand Wollenschläger, Kay Hailbronner, Stephanie Reynolds, Karin de Vries, Sara Iglesias Sanchez, Cliodhna Murphy, Cathryn Costello, Christoph Schönberger, Manuel Kellerberger (tbc), Ulrich Becker and Philippe de Bruycker.

For further information please consult the official programme.