EUPolex Team

Shai Dothan (chair holder) is an Associate Professor of International and Public Law, Jean Monnet Chair in EU law & Politics, at the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Law affiliated with iCourts—Centre of Excellence for International Courts. He received his PhD, LLM, and LLB from Tel Aviv University. Before coming to Copenhagen, Shai was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, the Hebrew University, and Tel Aviv University as well as a fellow at Yale University and the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg. He is the author of Reputation and Judicial Tactics: A Theory of National and International Courts, Cambridge University Press (2015) and International Judicial Review: When Should International Courts Intervene? Cambridge University Press (2020).

Juan Antonio Mayoral Díaz-Asensio (external collaborator): Juan A. Mayoral is ‘Ramon y Cajal’ researcher at Carlos III University in Madrid and ‘on leave’ Associate Professor at iCourts. Juan acted as former holder of the Jean Monnet Chair in EU law & Politics from September 2019 until May 2021. He also holds an interdisciplinary education based on his PhD in Political and Social Sciences (European University Institute) and BAs in Law, Philosophy and Political Science. When he joined iCourts as postdoctoral fellow in 2014, he implemented interdisciplinary and methodological teaching for the study of EU law and International Law and Courts at the University of Copenhagen. His work on EU law, courts and Europeanization has been published in recognized journals in the field and acknowledged by a multidisciplinary audience. He has frequently participated in seminars and discussions related to EU Law and Politics and he also has actively promoted such debates by organising and participating in interdisciplinary academic conferences and workshops with top-scholars in the field. He is also co-convenor of the Law & Courts Section of the European Consortium for Political Research, member of the Board of Danish European Community Studies Association and of the Network of legal empirical scholars.

Marlene wind (team member): Marlene Wind is Professor and the Director of Centre for European Politics at the University of Copenhagen and affiliated researcher at iCourts. Marlene, in collaboration with the Chair, coordinates the educational activities of the action at the Political Science Department at the University of Copenhagen. Moreover, she also promotes the involvement of the action in the Danish and European public debate.

Her research is among other things focused on the institutional changes and treaties of the European Union.  Her research emphasis has in recent years been on the interplay between law and politics in the European Union but also on politics and law from a more theoretical point of view. Which types of democracy are more prone to supranational regulation and how should the division of labour be between courts and parliaments in a democracy? Furthermore, her research has also focused on the role of national courts in the European integration process as well as the role of the ECJ. Her current investigation focuses on the interaction between populism and the rule of Law in the European Union. Finally, Marlene Wind participates actively in the Danish debate on EU matters and is often used as an EU-expert in various media. She is moreover an established columnist at the Danish national newspaper Politiken. Furthermore, she has received several prizes and acknowledgements for her ability to communicate with the wider public on European matter and also for her courage to engage in the sometimes sensitive debate on national sovereignty and European integration. She was also the first recipient of the prestigious ‘Tøger Seidenfaden prize’ handed over on 10 May 2012.

Urška Sadl (team member): Urška Sadl is Professor of Law at the European University Institute and Global Fellow Researcher at iCourts. Urška, as member of the Nordic CJEU database project (2019-2024) and founder of the NOLESLAW Network, collaborates with the Chair in the promotion of a common interdisciplinary and empirical academic agenda and research training on EU Law & Politics.

Her primary research interests include the empirical studies of European courts and their jurisprudence, the language of courts, the theory and practice of judicial precedents as well as topics in European constitutional law more generally. She was awarded the prestigious Sapere Aude grant from the Danish Independent Research Fund to investigate how legal actors (officials acting on behalf of national governments and European Institutions, including the judges of national supreme courts) shape the law made by the CJEU.

She has joined the EUI after working at iCourts centre of Excellence for International Courts at the Faculty of Law in Copenhagen. She obtained her BA and Master degree in law from the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. Urška also holds a LL.M. degree in Legal Studies from the College of Europe in Brugge and a PhD degree from the University of Copenhagen. She has completed research stays at King’s College, London, Institute of European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford and most recently visited the University of Michigan as Michigan Grotius Research Scholar. Her research appears e.g. in the European Law Journal, the European Law Review, the European Journal of Legal Studies and the European Constitutional Law Review.

Lykke Friis (team member): Lykke Friis is the director of Think Tank EUROPA. As part of EUPoLex, Lykke, in collaboration with Catharina Sørensen, promotes the engagement of the Jean Monnet action in the Danish and European public debate.

She has a background as Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen (1997), Master in Political Science (University of Copenhagen) and Master of European Studies from London School of Economics. In her research, Lykke Friis focuses on Germany's role in Europe, Brexit and the EU's global position. Since her doctoral dissertation on the eastern enlargement, she has also worked intensively with the development of Central and Eastern Europe. Lykke Friis has always had Europe as the focal point of her work. First as a researcher, senior researcher and head of research at the Danish Institute for International Affairs, and later as Director of European Affairs at the Confederation of Danish Industries (DI), followed by two periods as Prorector for University of Copenhagen. Her time as prorector was interrupted by four years in politics, where she was Minister of Climate, Energy and Gender Equality and since spokesperson for European Affairs for the Liberals (Venstre).

Catharina Sørensen (institutional collaborator): Catharina Sørensen is Deputy Director at Think Tank EUROPA. Together with Lykke Friis, Catharina will increase impact of the academic debates in the Danish and European public debate.

She is in charge of directing and developing the think tank’s research-based activities, and overseeing its cooperation with other research environments in Denmark and abroad. Together with Think Tank EUROPA’s director, Catharina contributes to the strategic development of the think tank and to servicing its Advisory Board. Catharina holds a PhD in political science from the University of Copenhagen (2007) and specialises in euroscepticism studies. Prior to joining the think tank, Catharina worked for the EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS), where she was in charge of economic and trade relations with Ukraine and where she led a team tasked with improving communication on the EU’s Eastern Partnership. Catharina has also worked for the European Commission, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish Institute for International Studies.

Advisory Board

Anne Lise Kjær: Anne Lise is Associate professor in legal linguistics (Law & Language) in iCourts - the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence for International Courts at the Faculty of Law. Her field of expertise and research interests include legal language and translation, comparative law, legal cultures, and multilingual legal interpretation. Her current research aims at developing cross-disciplinary approaches to the study of legal integration in Europe, combining theories of language, discourse, culture, and law.

Mikael Rask Madsen: Mikael Rask Madsen is currently the Director of iCourts - the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence for International Courts. His research concerns the special interaction between law and global integration, the role and power of lawyers in globalization, the increased importance of supranational legal institutions and more generally, the international transformation of law and authority towards networked expertise.

Mikael Rask Madsen has significant teaching experience from having studied and researched at a number of leading universities, including École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Oxford University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Strasbourg and Sciences Po - L'Institut d'études politiques (IEP) de Paris. At the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, he directed the Centre for Studies in Legal Culture in the period 2008-11.