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Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence 2020-2024

The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at Trinity College Dublin has now come to a close at the end of January 2024. We would like to thank all the students, staff, academics, policy-makers and others who took part in teaching, research and events on EU Studies over the past three years and more!  

Welcome to the EUROGOVERNANCE Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for EU Law, Politics, and Constitutional Governance.

The EUROGOVERNANCE Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence organizes events, research and teaching on topics related to European Union with the joint participation of the Department of Political Science and the School of Law. We hope you will participate in the events and enjoy finding out more about the research and teaching activities described below.

Events

EUROGOVERNANCE organises two seminar series supporting talks and discussion on important aspects of governance in Ireland, the European Union and the wider world.

  • The Political Science Department hosts the “Politics in in the European Union” seminar series which meets several times throughout the term (normally lunchtime on Mondays) for presentations and talks on Irish, EU and global politics. It is an interdisciplinary Seminar, and open to staff, postgraduate students and others around Trinity College. Details of events in this seminar series in 2023-24 can be found here.

  • The Trinity Centre for Constitutional Governance – TriCon – at the Law School hosts the “Constitutional Governance in Europe” seminar series which meets several times throughout the term. The Constitutional Governance in Europe Seminar Series aims to bring together scholars in law and politics to discuss current issues in constitutional governance, viewed in an interdisciplinary, comparative and international light. Its ambit of study therefore includes comparative constitutional law, including a strong comparison with other EU member states. It also includes consideration of international law, including EU law, the European Charter and the European Convention on Human Righteous, as well as fundamental rights and anti-discrimination provisions as interpreted by both national and European courts. Of critical importance for constitutional governance in 2020 and beyond is, of course, the issue of Brexit and the future relationship between Ireland and the UK, as well as Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Government in Westminster. Details of TriCon events can be found on the TriCon webpages here.TriCon’s twitter account can be found here.

In addition to the two seminar series, the EUROGOVERNANCE Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence supports several other events:

  • The “start the year” reception for those involved in EU studies at Trinity and around Dublin.
  • The annual “Jean Monnet Lecture” on the External Relations of the European Union.
  • The Dublin European Law Work in Progress Workshops, organised together with Dr Stephen Coutts of University College Cork. These workshops invite academics based in the Dublin area and across Ireland working on EU studies topics to present draft papers for feedback from their peers.

Given COVID-related public health policies for much of the period between 2020 and 2023, many events had to be cancelled, rescheduled, or held in online only format.  

Selected Events

  • Thursday 15th April 2021: Book launch and discussion: Great Judgments of the European Court of Justice: Rethinking the Landmark Decisions of the Foundational Period (Cambridge UP) by William Phelan.
    Discussants: Gerard Hogan (Advocate General of the European Court of Justice), Fernanda Nicola (Professor of Law, and historian of EU law, American University Washington College of Law), William Phelan (Associate Professor and Jean Monnet Chair of EU Politics and Law, Trinity College Dublin), Aileen Kavanagh, Panel Chair (Professor of Constitutional Governance, School of Law, Trinity College Dublin)
  • Monday 12 April 2021, Politics in the European Union Seminar, Aidan Regan and Stefan Mueller spoke to more than 50 students and others on the subject “Has Irish Politics moved to the Left?”
  • Monday 19 September 2022, Politics in the European Union Seminar, Nigel Gould-Davies spoke to more than 30 students and others on the subject of “Power, Surprise and Change in World Politics”
  • Professor Ben Tonra (UCD) gave the Jean Monnet Lecture on 23 March 2022, on Europe and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

Research

Members of the EUROGOVERNANCE team pursue research on different aspects of politics and law in the European Union and its member states:

  • Aileen Kavanagh, Professor of Constitutional Governance at the Law School, researches constitutional governance, focussing on issues of the separation of powers, democratic constitutionalism, and constitutional courts’ “strike down power”. Professor Kavanagh’s research can be found here.
  • Mark Bell, Regius Professor of Law at the Law School, researches EU labour and anti-discrimination law, focussing on religious discrimination, on disability issues, on discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, and on racial discrimination. Professor Bell’s research can be found here.
  • William Phelan, Associate Professor of Political Science, researches the history and politics of the European Court of Justice, focussing in particular on the life and contribution to the development of European Law of French politician and later ECJ, Robert Lecourt. Professor Phelan’s research can be found here and here (SSRN).
  • Emanuel Coman, Assistant Professor of Political Science, researches the changing nature of local politics in Europe, focussing in particular on building a dataset of municipal elections for all EU member states. Professor Coman’s research can be found here.

The European Commission's support for the production of these publications does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Teaching

Members of the EUROGOVERNANCE team teach a variety of modules that incorporate EU related topics. These include:

Contact

William Phelan, director of the EUROGOVERNANCE Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence.

The term of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at Trinity College Dublin was extended to end January 2024 in recognition of the challenges of delivering teaching, research, and events on EU Studies due to COVID-19 during the period 2020-2023. We thank the Erasmus+ team for their flexibility in authorising this extension, and for their support of EU Studies at Trinity College Dublin.