Module de recherche 1 : Fundamental Rights & Migration: Challenging the Normative Foundations of the European Legal and Institutional Order
Grounded in a common methodological basis, the two sub-projects proposals each focus on burning issues, both from a theoretical and from a political point of view. This general summary will give insights into this methodological framework and present in a nutshell the core of both sub-projects.
In adopting and further developing the methodology outlined by Allen Buchanan in his path-breaking book on the international order (2004), the main task of political philosophy is conceived as providing practical guidance in the process of interpretation and reform of current institutional orders. In order to pursue this goal, the common methodological basis used within these projects will be a non-ideal, institutional and supranational approach. This relatively new and still insufficiently explored methodology shall enable to develop an innovative and public affairs oriented normative analysis of the EU legal and institutional framework.
In a crucial aspect, this methodological orientation is of first importance in the ambition to sustain a scientific dialogue with other disciplines - in the first line lawyers and political scientists. Similarly, this view casts political philosophy as an applied discipline that is able of engaging in a fruitful collaboration with policy makers.
Two doctoral students are financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF): Alain Zysset 's study "Questioning the Normative Foundations of the ECHR" will focus on the corpus of norms that is supposed to form the core conception of justice of the EU legal order. Johan Rochel will pursue in his study on "European Union and migration ethics: challenging the normative foundations" an innovative strategy in formulating a comprehensive normative framework in order to go past the current dead-lock of the "open/closed borders" debates.
