• The Rule of Law
• EU external relations law; especially the role of constitutional principles
• EU Justice and Home Affairs policies; especially external dimension of migration policy/border policy
• EU development cooperation; especially EU's role in Ethiopia

My Bio

I obtained my LLM degree in 2010 after completing the Legal Research Master at the University of Utrecht. During my LLM studies I carried out research projects on inter alia Frontex (EU Border Agency) joint operations in light of refugee and human rights law, the reception of EU law in the Member States’ legal order and the principle of loyal cooperation within CFSP. During those years, I also worked as research assistant for professors at the University of Utrecht and of Amsterdam on European constitutional law and worked for an Amsterdam-based law firm as paralegal on European law. Furthermore I interned at a civil society project (Cotonou Task Force) on EU development policy in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) funded by the local EC Delegation.

Since October 2010 I am a PhD student within the EXACT programme. My joint host universities within this network are the University of Cologne and of Edinburgh. From March to October 2011 I was based at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels where I worked within the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) unit; there I dealt mainly with Frontex and EU border policy. Currently I am based at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have similar research interests; I am looking forward to an exchange of ideas on these matters.

Title of research project: The rule of law in EU's external dimension of migration control

Supervisors: Professor Wolfgang Wessels (University of Cologne) & Dr Christina Boswell (University of Edinburgh)

This study deals with a fundamental cornerstone of the European Union and its Member States: the rule of law. The EU Treaties leave no doubt about its constitutional status. The rule of law is a ‘universal value’ on which the ‘Union is founded’ and to which the Member States are ‘confirming their attachment’. This internal and identity-linked value is however not bound to remain within the EU solely; it is therefore also an overarching value to export in EU external action: ‘the Union's action on the international scene shall be guided by the principles which have inspired its own creation, development and enlargement, and which it seeks to advance in the wider world: (…) the rule of law’.

Over the years the EU has developed an external dimension of migration control. Measures such as externalising border control, readmission of migrants to third States or mobility opportunities have been promoted in that context. This relatively new area of EU external relations is still sensitive from a sovereignty point of view and is traditionally characterised by its informal and non-binding nature. For example, Frontex, the EU border agency, operates beyond Europe's borders, sometimes on the basis of undisclosed working arrangements with third States. This nature of the external dimension of migration control presents challenges to the rule of law.

Hence, this project analyses the role of rule of law in this new external policy field. Exactly in this area, often classified as 'securitised', what can be the role for values to influence policy-making? Informed by a sound analysis of the conceptual debate on te rule of law, the study looks at the requirements of that principle in the field of migration control. By studying several EU actors in this field (DG Home, Frontex, DG Dev-EuropeAid, EEAS) the study aims to analyse why the notions of and the adherence to the rule of law differs accross these actors.

However, this is all work in progress, so any input is welcome!   

Academic Activities

Conferences:

• Presentation of paper 'Fundamental rights and the extraterritorialisation of EU border policy - a contradiction in terms?' at CEPS (Brussels) EU-Canada training school on 'The reframing of the EU external border - risk, ethnicity and nationality', February 2011 (publication forthcoming)

• Presentation of paper 'Policy Coherence in the EU System - concepts and legal rooting of an ambiguous term', with Simon Stross, at CEU Universidad San Pablo (Madrid) conference on 'EU as a global power', April 2011.

• Presentation of paper 'Revolutions and their migrants: EU's solidarity and fundamental rights' at University of Surrey (Guildford) UACES conference on 'New frontiers in European Studies', June 2011. Click here for a UACES podcast interview with me on the subject.

• Presentation of paper 'Revolution and war at Europe's doorstep and the migratory consequences - implications for the external dimension of migration' at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs (Helsinki) seminar on 'The EU and its neighbours', September 2011 (publication forthcoming)

• Presentation of paper 'EU Foreign, Security and Defence Policy: a Competence-Responsibility Gap?' at the Hebrew University (Jerusalem) Graduate Conference, December 2011

Publications

• A.P.L. den Hertog and R.A. Wessel, 'EU Foreign, Security and Defence Policy: a Competence-Responsibility Gap?', in: M. Evans and P. Koutrakos (eds.), International Responsibility: EU and International Perspectives (Oxford, Hart Publishing), forthcoming 2012

• A.P.L. den Hertog, 'Fundamental Rights and the Extra-Territorialisation of EU Border Policy: a Contradiction in Terms?', in: D.Bigo, S. Carrera and E. Guild (eds.), Foreigners, Refugees or Minorities? Rethinking People in the Context of Border Controls and Visas (Farnham, Ashgate), forthcoming 2012 

• S. Carrera, E. Guild, A.P.L. den Hertog and J. Parkin, Implementation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and its impact on EU Home Affairs Agencies - Frontex, Europol and the European Asylum Support Office, EP Study (Citizen's rights and constitutional affairs), August 2011

Teaching

• Teaching at University of Cologne of seminar on European Politics 'EU external relations - with special focus on EU-Africa relations' together with EXACT Fellow James Nyomakwa-Obimpeh (April - July 2012).

• Guest lecture at ELTE University (Budapest) on 'EU Border Policy, Human Rights and Refugees in the Mediterranean Sea' in the Erasmus course of L. Balogh on 'Law and Ethnicity: From the Dilemma of Ethnic Identity-Formation to the Morphology of Minority Protection' (November 2011).

• Two guest lectures at the Ethiopian Civil Service College (Addis Ababa) on 'Legal Philosophy' in the course of prof. Kundidzora on the same topic (October 2009).