Governing the Urban Dimension of EU law

GUD EU Law aims to advance our understanding of the urban dimension of the European Union’s (EU) legal system. How does EU law deal with urbanization processes and to what extent do its rules contribute to enable a just and sustainable transition in cities? While they occupy just 2% of land, EU cities today host some 75% of citizens and produce about 85% of the EU's GDP. Yet, due to their dense and diverse setting, urban areas are also places where social conflicts and environmental threats magnify and require urgent solutions. Legal scholarship has thus far paid attention to local authorities as single actors in the EU's multilevel system without drawing any clear distinctions with other subnational institutions. GUD EU Law’s main contribution is to understand cities as collective actors and study how their internal conflicts and dynamics connected to urbanization trends are influenced by EU rules. The project draws on an interdisciplinary approach building on law, urban sociology, and economy. It will rely on a mixed-method approach to analyze how judicial decisions and implementation practices of EU law deal with and influence urban dynamics in three fields (urban mobility, air quality and housing). Findings will advance our understanding of how EU affects our everyday urban society and what this influence reveals about EU’s limits and capacity to solve urgent societal issues connected to urbanization.