Vasiliki Kosta

Vasiliki Kosta studied law at King’s College London obtaining the LL.B. in 2006 and the LL.M. in European Law with ‘Distinction’ in 2007. Subsequently she pursued her doctoral research at the European University Institute, Florence (EUI) on ‘Fundamental Rights in Internal Market Legislation’. She received the M.Res. (Master of Research) from the EUI in 2008 and was awarded the Ph.D. title in 2013. From 2009 – 2011 Kosta worked as a research associate at the Academy of European Law, EUI Florence. In 2011 Kosta was a law clerk at the Court of Justice of the EU in the chambers of Judge Koen Lenaerts, and she completed a traineeship at the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights in 2011/2012. Since 2012 Kosta works as an Assistant Professor of European Law at the Europa Institute of Leiden University. Kosta has acted as the coordinator of the LL.M. European Law programme at Leiden University, and she leads the research cluster on EU fundamental rights of the Europa Institute’s research programme ‘The Progression of EU Law: accommodating change and upholding values’. She teaches EU Law (institutional, constitutional and substantive) and ECHR Law at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Research Project

Free-standing proportionality’ in EU law: exploring ambiguities and tracing its contours. This research project will investigate the principle of proportionality as applicable to all Union actions across the board, irrespective of the nature of the action (administrative/legislative), and in a ‘free standing’ manner as a discrete ground of judicial review. In this way, the principle binds both Member State action falling within the scope of EU law, and Union action – the latter explicitly per Art. 5(4) of the Treaty on European Union (“TEU”), which requires that Union action does not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaties. This research project will ask two overarching research questions: first, what interest does ‘free-standing proportionality’ in EU law serve? Both actual judicial and legislative practice will be reviewed in order to answer that question. Second, the project will ask whether it is normatively desirable to have ‘free- standing proportionality’ in place. At the outset, it will investigate the source(s) of proportionality in EU law and whether ‘free-standing proportionality’ fits this/these. Subsequently, it will ask to what extent this principle is and should be applied differently depending on the nature of the action (administrative/legislative); and finally whether ‘free-standing proportionality’, as actually and potentially used, fits the EU’s system of constitutional objectives.