Mobility Phase: Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
Solidarity between Constituent States: A Comparative Analysis of European Federal States and the European Union
Photo: Joanna Scheffel
Christina Neier is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zurich. She also teaches European law at UniDistance Suisse and is managing editor of the Swiss Review of International and European Law (SRIEL). Previously, Christina worked as a research assistant at the University of Zurich, as a legal officer at the EEA Coordination Unit of the Liechtenstein national administration, and as a senior researcher at the Liechtenstein Institute. Her doctoral theses on the European Union citizenship was awarded the 2019 Annual Prize of the Law Faculty of the University of Zurich. Her current research focuses on solidarity between constituent states of European federal states and between Member States of the European Union. She has published several articles on EU citizenship rights, the EEA Agreement, the bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU, and in human rights law.
Solidarity between Constituent States: A Comparative Analysis of European Federal States and the European Union
In times of crisis, solidarity is invoked in politics and social discourse. In the European Union, the question of solidarity between its Member States has become one of the most pressing in recent years due to the financial and economic crisis, the migration crisis and now the Corona crisis. But who owes whom how much solidarity? Solidarity is an ambiguous and complex concept. At its core, it is about the mutual bonds and obligations of a community. In the context of federally structured communities, solidarity can be understood as a fundamental federal principle in the interplay between autonomy and integration. The question of how solidarity between constituent states should be can only be answered when it is clear what reasons and values underlie current solidarity regimes. This study therefore reconstructs and contextualises the current forms of solidarity between the constituent states of European federal states and between the Member States of the European Union on the basis of the underlying and often unspoken conceptions of federalism and democracy.
