Staff profile

Päivi Neuvonen is Associate Professor in European Law and Co-director of the Durham Center for Law and Philosophy (DCLP) at Durham Law School. She researches in the areas of European Union law, European human rights law, and legal and political theory and teaches modules on European Union law and legal philosophy. In addition to these fields, she has teaching experience in public law, equality law, jurisprudence, and ‘law and society’.

Her research primarily focuses on European law, broadly defined, from theoretical, socio-legal, and comparative perspectives. She is also interested in the transnationalisation of law outside the European context.

Before joining Durham Law School, she held postdoctoral positions as Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki; Lecturer in Law at the University of Turku; Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Policy Research Centre on Equality Policies and the Institute for Constitutional Law at KU Leuven; and Visiting Scholar at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Harvard University, the University of Edinburgh, Oxford University, and the University of Leicester.

In 2017-2021, she was co-leading the ‘Constructing Legal Orders in Europe: The General Principles of EU Law’ research project, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and the British Academy, at the University of Leicester. For the results, please see Research Handbook on General Principles in EU Law (Elgar 2022). 

She studied law at Oxford University (D.Phil. in Law), University College London (LL.M. in Public Law and Human Rights Law) and the University of Turku (Master of Laws Degree) and was awarded the Title of Docent in European Law by the University of Helsinki in 2020.

Teaching Areas

European Union Law (LAW1061)

Introduction to EU Law (LAW40215)

Legal Philosophy (LAW2311)

• European Human Rights Law
• European Union Law
• Legal Theory
• Political Theory
• Socio-legal Studies

Authored book

• Neuvonen, P. J. (2016). Equal Citizenship and Its Limits in EU Law: We the Burden?. Hart Publishing

Book review

• Neuvonen, P. J. (2018). Jeremy B. Bierbach, Frontiers of Equality in the Development of EU and US Citizenship, T.M.C. Asser Press/Springer 2017’. European law review, 43(4), 610-613
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2016). ‘Hanneke van Eijken, EU Citizenship & the Constitutionalisation of the European Union, Europa Law Publishing 2015’. Common Market Law Review, 55(3), 844-845

Chapter in book

• Neuvonen, P. J. (2023). Free Movement Rights in Finland. In K. Hyltén-Cavallius, & J. Paju (Eds.), Free Movement of Persons in the Nordic States: EU Law, EEA Law, and Regional Cooperation. Hart Publishing
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2022). Systemic Discrimination. In R. Grote, F. Lachenmann, & R. Wolfrum (Eds.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law. Oxford University Press
• Neuvonen, P. J., & Ziegler, K. S. (2022). General Principles in the EU Legal Order: Past, Present, and Future Directions. In K. S. Ziegler, P. J. Neuvonen, & V. Moreno-Lax (Eds.), Research Handbook on General Principles in EU Law. Edward Elgar Publishing
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2022). The General Principle of Equality as a Value Commitment in EU Law: Scope, Limits, and Challenges. In K. S. Ziegler, P. J. Neuvonen, & V. Moreno-Lax (Eds.), Research Handbook on General Principles in EU Law. Edward Elgar Publishing
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2018). Free Movement as a Means of Subject-Formation: Defending a More Relational Approach to EU Citizenship. In R. Bauböck (Ed.), Debating European Citizenship. Springer Verlag
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2016). From a Relative to a Relational Equality: Rethinking Comparability in the Light of Relational Accounts of Social Justice. In D. Cuypers, & J. Vrielink (Eds.), Equal Is Not Enough: Exploring Novel Theoretical and Empirical Approaches to the Shaping of (In)Equalities. Intersentia
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2016). EU Citizens’ Whimsical Status: Persons or Actors on Their Way to Full Agency?. In N. Ferreira, & D. Kostakopoulou (Eds.), The Human Face of the European Union: Are EU Law and Policy Humane Enough?. Cambridge University Press

Edited book

• Ziegler, K. S., Neuvonen, P. J., & Moreno-Lax, V. (Eds.). (2022). Research Handbook on General Principles in EU Law: Constructing Legal Orders in Europe. Edward Elgar Publishing

Journal Article

• Neuvonen, P. J. (2024). Une démarche critique: Qu’est-ce que les juristes en droit de l’UE peuvent apprendre de la théorie critique?. Cahiers de méthodologie juridique, 2023 - 3(37), 1397-1443
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2022). A way of critique: What can EU law scholars learn from critical theory?. European Law Open, 1(1), 60-88. https://doi.org/10.1017/elo.2022.7
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2020). A Revised Democratic Critique of EU (Citizenship) Law: From Relative Homogeneity to Political Judgment. German law journal, 21(5), https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2020.48
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2020). The COVID‐19 policymaking under the auspices of parliamentary constitutional review: The case of Finland and its implications. European Policy Analysis, 6(2), https://doi.org/10.1002/epa2.1098
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2019). Retrieving the ‘subject’ of European integration. European Law Journal: Review of European Law in Context, 25(1), https://doi.org/10.1111/eulj.12301
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2019). Transforming Membership? Citizenship, Identity and the Problem of Belonging in Regional Integration Organizations. European Journal of International Law, 30(1), https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chz007
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2017). EU citizenship and its “very specific” essence: Rendón Marin and CS. Common Market Law Review, 54(4), 1201-1220
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2015). ‘Inequality in equality’ in the European Union equality directives. International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, 15(4), https://doi.org/10.1177/1358229115591412
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2014). In Search of (Even) More Substance for the “Real Link” Test: Comment on Prinz and Seeberger. European law review, 39, 125-136
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2008). Prohibition of Discrimination on the Grounds of Nationality in EU Law. Oikeustiede-Jurisprudentia,

Other (Print)

• Neuvonen, P. J. (2018). Inclusion or Conflicts of Loyalty? 15 Years of Dual Citizenship in Finland
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2016). Britain’s departure from the EU would lead to uncertainty
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2016). Free-movement as a means of subject-formation: defending a more relational approach to EU citizenship

Report

• Neuvonen, P. J., & Vrielink, J. (2014). Toegankelijkheidsregelgeving. Een overzichtsanalyse van regelgeving inzake fysieke toegankelijkheid van gebouwen en woningen in Engeland, Finland, Nederland en de Verenigde Staten. [No known commissioning body]
• Neuvonen, P. J. (2011). ‘Country Report: Finland’ in ‘Reconciling Superior Courts with the ECHR and the ECtHR: A Comparative Perspective’. [No known commissioning body]