European Law School PhD Workshop – Sovereignty and the European Union
6th und 7th September 2023
Under the title "Sovereignty and the European Union", DynamInt hosted its third international conference to date, this time in cooperation with King's College London. The conference, organized by Nina Hart, Meret Plucis, Hannah Zaruchas, Kaja Kazmierska and Julian Morgan, brought together doctoral students from six different European countries in London on September 6th and 7th to discuss various aspects of European sovereignty.
The conference not only offered interested DynamInt doctoral students the opportunity to gain experience in organizing an international conference, but also gave all participants the opportunity to exchange ideas about their doctoral projects and to connect young researchers across Europe.
Following on from the Summer School for students of the European Law School taking place at the same time, the topic of the conference - the sovereignty of the EU - could hardly have been more fundamental. European sovereignty has been at the center of many current legal and political debates at least since the French Council Presidency. The concrete meaning of the concept is just as complex and controversial as the related terms from "strategic autonomy" to "digital and energy sovereignty". The wide-ranging, and in some cases competing, ideas of European sovereignty reflect different visions for the future of the European Union. 
In order to facilitate as broad an exchange as possible, the organizers decided against narrowing down the topic too much and instead decided to structure it into three thematic areas - the internal, external and regulatory sovereignty of the EU.
The first day of the conference began with two panels on the internal sovereignty of the Union. Under the moderation of Julian Morgan (DynamInt, Humboldt University of Berlin) and Meret Plucis (DynamInt, Humboldt University of Berlin), Dr. Darren Harvey (King's College London) and Prof. Matthias Ruffert (Humboldt University of Berlin) discussed the contributions of the doctoral candidates with a focus on the Article 2 TEU values of democracy and the rule of law.
The third panel of the day dealt with the external sovereignty of the EU, in particular with regard to current issues such as sustainability in global value chains and the autonomy of the EU in international arbitration law. Prof. Paul Cardwell (Kings College London) discussed the contributions of the doctoral students under the moderation of Hannah Zaruchas (DynamInt, Humboldt University of Berlin).
The second day of the conference started with the panel on EU regulatory autonomy, where Prof. Elaine Fahey (University of London), led by Nina Hart (King's College London), discussed contributions on the Brussels Effect in global, digital markets.
The final part of the conference was a peer-to-peer workshop, led by Julian Morgan, Hannah Zaruchas, Kaja Kazmierska and Meret Plucis, on interdisciplinary methods in their own research.
After a concluding keynote speech by Prof. Matthias Ruffert, all participants of both the PhD conference and the European Law Summer School had the opportunity to discuss their contributions further and network over drinks and snacks.
