Staff profile
Professor Robert Schütze
Professor of European and Global Law

Affiliation | Room number | Telephone |
---|---|---|
Professor of European and Global Law in the Durham Law School | PCL223 | +44 (0) 191 33 42802 |
Member of the Centre for the History of Political Thought | ||
Co-Director of the Global Policy Institute |
Biography
Robert Schütze is Professor of European and Global Law. He is a constitutional scholar with a particular expertise in the law of the European Union and comparative federalism. Outside the Law School, he co-founded the Global Policy Institute with the political scientist Professor David Held. He also teaches at Luiss (Rome) and is a permanent Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges).
In the past, he has held numerous Visiting Professorships and was a Fulbright-Schuman Fellow at the Centre for European Studies at Harvard University and a Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute. He studied law, political science and sociology in Germany, England and Italy and holds a Ph.D. in European law from the European University Institute and a Ph.D. in political theory from the London School of Economics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an academic associate of Cornerstone Chambers.
Current Projects
Models of Demoicracy
If democracy is the government of the people, can there be a government of peoples – or demoicracy? Are supranational organisations, like the European Union, or international organisations, like the United Nations, demoicracies? And what federal models of demoicracy have developed in the past to explain the institutional structures of a plurality of peoples ruling together? This project responds to these questions by offering a comparative constitutional analysis of the demoicratic credentials of the United States, Germany and Switzerland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries before exploring the international structures of demoicracy in the twenty-first century through the EU and the UN. It is funded by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship.
Framing Dassonville: Text and Context in EU Law
There are few ‘mythical’ judgments that every student of European integration has read or ought to have read. Dassonville is one of these judgments. The conventional wisdom holds that the Court here offered a hyper-liberalist definition of the European internal market, which radically dissociated itself from the conceptual shackles accepted in modern international trade law. According to this view, Dassonville represents the substantive law equivalent of Van Gend en Loos. This traditional view is, however, mistaken. But if that is the case, what did Dassonville originally “mean”; and how did the Dassonville formula come to mean what it means today? The project tries to answer these questions through a reception history of this famous case.
Research
Over the years he has published three monographs, three textbooks, ten edited collections or special journal issues and a wide range of articles and chapters. His work has been translated into a number of languages; and he is best known for his “federal” reading of the European Union. His 'From Dual to Cooperative Federalism: The Changing Structure of European Law' received the 'Best Book' award of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES). He is the author of “European Union Law” (Third Edition, with Oxford University Press) and “An Introduction to European Law” (Third Edition, with Oxford University Press) - a website dedicated to both textbooks can be found here. He has published (with Roger Masterman) the Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law - a companion website to which can be found here.
As an editor, he co-founded (with Richard Albert), the Oxford Comparative Constitutionalism Series that aims to explore the horizontal and vertical links between local, national or global constitutional structures. He equally co-directs the Oxford European Union Library (with Piet Eeckhout) as well as the Hart Series on Parliamentary Democracy in Europe (with Nicola Lupo). He is a joint co-editor of the Yearbook of European Law – OUP’s flagship journal on the law of the European Union.
In the past, he has also been the principal investigator of the “Neo-Federalism” Project – funded by the European Research Council. More detailed information about the project and its members can be found here.

Research interests
- EU Constitutional Law
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- International Law
- Legal History and Political Theory
Related Links
Awarded Grants
- 2021: Demoicracy: Constitutional Structures for a ¿Government of Peoples¿(£95901.00 from Leverhulme Trust)
- 2013: European Research Council (Principal Investigator, € 909.662)
Publications
Authored book
- Schütze, Robert. (Planned). Framing Dassonville: Text and Context in European Law.
- Schütze, Robert (Planned). Models of Demoicracy. Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert (2023). Introduction to European Law (Fourth edition). Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert (2021). European Constitutional Law (Third edition). Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert (2021). European Union Law (Third edition). Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert (2020). Introduction to European Law (Third edition). Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2018). European Union Law (2nd Edition). Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert (2017). From International to Federal Market: The Changing Structure of European Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2015). Introduction to European Law (2nd Edition). Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2015). European Union Law. Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2015). European Constitutional Law (2nd Edition). Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2014). Foreign Affairs and the European Constitution - Selected Essays. Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2012). European Constitutional Law. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2012). An Introduction to European Law. Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2009). 'From Dual To Cooperative Federalism: The Changing Structure Of European Law'. Oxford Oxford University Press.
Chapter in book
- Schütze, Robert. (2023). 'Fiscal Barriers in the Internal Market'. In EU Fiscal Federalism: Past, Present, Future. Hinarejos, Alicia & Schütze, Robert Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert (2023). 'The Internal Market: A Constitutional Perspective'. In Oxford Principles of European Union Law - Volume II: The Internal Market. Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2021). 'From Dassonville to Cassis: The Revolution that did not Take Place'. In Cassis de Dijon: 40 Years On. Albertina Albors-Llorens, Catherine Barnard & Brigitte Leucht. Hart Publishing. 23-42.
- Schütze, Robert (2020). 'Modelli di "demoi-crazia": l'Europa e la sua Unione'. In Parlamenti e democrazia in Europa. Fasone, Cristina, Lupo, Nicola & Vauchez, Antoine il Mulino. 77-126.
- Schütze, Robert. (2019). 'Foreign Affairs Federalism in the European Union'. In Oxford Handbook of Comparative Foreign Relations Law. Bradley, Curtis. Oxford University Press. 333-351.
- Schütze, Robert (2019). 'Constitutionalism(s)'. In Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law. Masterman, Roger & Schütze, Robert Cambridge University Press. 40-66.
- Schütze, Robert. (2019). 'Third Country Goods in the EU Internal Market'. In The Law of the EU Internal Market and the Future of European Integration. Amtenbrink, Davies, Kochenov and & Lindeboom. Cambridge University Press. 200-214.
- Schütze, Robert (2018). The ‘Unsettled’ Eighteenth Century: Kant and his Predecessors. In Globalisation and Governance: International Problems, European Solutions. Schütze, Robert Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 11-40.
- Schütze, Robert (2018). 'Direct Effects and Indirect Effects of Union Law'. In Oxford Principles of European Union Law. Volume I: The European Union legal order. Schütze, Robert & Tridimas, Takis Oxford: Oxford University Press. 265-299.
- Schütze, Robert. (2018). 'Introduction: British Federalism?'. In The United Kingdom and the Federal Idea. Hart Publishing. 1-26.
- Schütze, Robert (2017). 'Classifying EU Competences: German Constitutional Lessons?'. In The Division of Competences between the EU and the Member States. Garben, Sacha & Govaere, Inge. Hart Publishing. 33-58.
- Schütze, Robert (2017). 'Political Philosophy of Federalism'. In Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law. Wolfrum, Rüdiger, Grote, Rainer & Lachenmann, Frauke
- Schütze, Robert. (2015). 'EU Competences: Existence and Exercise'. In Oxford Handbook of European Union Law. Arnull, Tony & Chalmers, Damian Oxford University Press. 75-102.
- Schütze, Robert. (2014). 'The "Treaty Power" and Parliamentary Democracy: Comparative Perspectives'. In 'Foreign Affairs and the EU Contitution'. Cambridge University Press. 359-406.
- Schütze, Robert. (2014). 'Le domaine des compétence d'execution'. In Traité de droit européen. Auby, Jean-Bernard & Dutheil de la Rochère, Jacqueline Bruylant. 69-86.
- Schütze, Robert. (2014). 'Constitutionalism and the European Union'. In European Union Law. Barnard, Catherine & Peers, Steve Oxford University Press. 71-96.
- Schütze, Robert. (2014). 'Limits to the Union’s “Internal Market” Competence(s)? - Constitutional Comparisons'. In 'The Question of Competence in the European Union'. Azoulai,Loïc Oxford University Press. 215-233.
- Schütze, Robert. (2014). 'External Union Policies: An Overview'. In Foreign Affairs and the EU Constitution. Cambridge University Press. 407-481.
- Schütze, Robert. (2012). 'European Community and Union, Party to International Agreements'. In Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law - Volume III. Wolfrum, Rüdiger, Guhr, Alexandra, Heilmann, Daniel, Kaiser, Karen, Lachenmann, Frauke, Pohlmann, Monika & Reuss, Matthias Oxford Oxford University Press. 860-871.
- Schütze, Robert. (2012). 'Federalism as Constitutional Pluralism: Letter from America'. In 'Constitutional Pluralism in the European Union and Beyond'. Avbelj, Mattej & Kommarek, Jan Oxford: Hart Publishing. 185-212.
- Schütze, Robert (2012). 'European Community and Union, Decision-Making and Competences on International Law Issues'. In Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law - Volume III. Wolfrum, Rüdiger, Guhr, Alexandra, Heilmann, Daniel, Kaiser, Karen, Lachenmann, Frauke, Pohlmann, Monika & Reuss, Matthias Oxford Oxford University Press. 814-822.
- Schütze, Robert. (2011). 'Constitutional Limits to Delegated Powers'. In The European Union and Global Emergencies. Antoniadis, A., Schütze, Robert. & Spaventa, E Oxford: Hart Publishing. 49-70.
- Schütze, Robert. (2011). 'The "Succession Doctrine" and the European Union'. In A Constitutional Order of States: essays in EU law in honour of Alan Dashwood. Arnull, Anthony, Barnard, Catherine, Dougan, Michael & Spaventa, Eleanor Oxford: Hart Publishing. 459-484.
- Schütze, Robert, Antoniadis, Antonis & Spaventa, Eleanor (2011). Introduction: The European Union and Global Emergencies. In The European Union and Global Emergencies. Antoniadis, Antonis, Schütze, Robert & Spaventa, Eleanor Oxford: Hart Publishing. 1-7.
- Schütze, Robert. (2011). 'Die Verfassung der "Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika": Föderalismus als (Inter)nationale Ordnung'. In 'Europäischer Föderalismus im Licht der Verfassungsgeschichte'. Bruha, Thomas Liechtensteinische Akademische Gesellschaft. 83-116.
- Schütze, Robert. (2010). 'Federalism and Foreign Affairs: Mixity as an (Inter)national Phenomenon'. In Mixed Agreements Revisited. Hillion, Christophe & Koutrakos, Panos Oxford: Hart Publishing. 57-86.
- Schütze, Robert. (2009). 'On 'Middle Ground': The European Community and Public International Law'. In Highest Courts and the Internationalisation of Law: Challenges and Changes. Muller, Sam & Louth, Marc The Hague: Hague Academic Press. 35-73.
- Schütze, Robert. (2009). 'The European Community's Federal Order of Competences: A Retrospective Analysis'. In 50 Years of the European Treaties: Looking Back and Thinking Forward. Dougan, Michael. & Currie, Samantha. Oregon: Hart Publishing. 63-92.
Edited book
- Hinarejos, Alicia & Schütze, Robert (2023). EU Fiscal Federalism: Past, Present, Future. Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert & Tridimas, Takis (2023). Oxford Principles of European Union Law - Volume II: The Internal Market. Oxford University Press.
- Craig, Paul & Schütze, Robert (2023). Landmark Cases in EU Law (2 Volumes). Hart Publishing.
- Masterman, Roger & Schütze, Robert (2019). The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law. Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert (2018). Governance and Globalisation: International Problems, European Solutions . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert & Tierney, Stephen (2018). The United Kingdom and the Federal Idea. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
- Schütze, Robert & Tridimas, Takis (2018). Oxford Principles of European Union Law - Volume I: The European Union Legal Order. Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2018). EU Treaties and Legislation (Second Edition). Cambridge University Press.
- Schütze, Robert. (2015). EU Treaties and Legislation. Cambridge University Press.
- Antoniadis, A. Schütze, R. & Spaventa, E. (2011). The European Union and Global Emergencies. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
Edited Journal
- (Published). Yearbook of European Law. Oxford University Press.
- Schütze, Robert & Staiger, Uta (2022). 'Brexit: Past, Present, Future'. Global Policy, 13 (6): Wiley.
- Held, David & Schütze, Robert (2017). Democracy Beyond National Borders. Global Policy, 8 (S6): Wiley.
- Barnard, C., Albors-Llorens, A., Gehring, M. & Schütze, Robert (2013). Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies, Volume 15, 2012-2013. 15 Hart Publishing.
Journal Article
- Schütze, Robert (2023). German Idealism after Kant: Nineteenth Century Foundations of International Law. Journal of the History of International Law 25(1): 105–141.
- Schütze, Robert (2022). Britain in the European Union: A Very Short Introduction. Global Policy 13(Special Issue 2): 39-46.
- Schütze, Robert (2022). Demoicracy in Europe: Some Preliminary Thoughts. European Law Review 47: 24-51.
- Schütze, Robert (2020). “Re-Constituting” the Internal Market: Towards a Common Law of International Trade? Yearbook of European Law 39: yeaa005, 250-292.
- Schutze, Robert (2018). ‘Re‐reading’ Dassonville: Meaning and Understanding in the History of European Law. European Law Journal 24(6): 376-407.
- Schütze, Robert (2018). Judicial Majoritarianism Revisited: “We, the Other Court”? European Law Review 43(2): 269-280.
- Schütze, Robert (2017). From the “Closed” to the “Open” Commercial State: A Very Brief History of International Economic Law. Journal of the History of International Law 19(4): 495-524.
- Schütze, Robert (2017). Parliamentary Democracy and International Treaties. Global Policy 8(56): 7-13.
- Schütze, Robert (2016). Of Types and Tests: Towards a Unitary Doctrinal Framework for Article 34 TFEU? European Law Review 41(6): 826-842.
- Schütze, Robert (2016). Tax Barriers to Intra-Union Trade: American ‘Federalism’, European ‘Internationalism’? Yearbook of European Law 35(1): 382-409.
- Schütze, Robert (2016). "Two-and-a-half Ways of Thinking about the European Union". Politique Européene 53(3): 28-37.
- Schütze, Robert (2013). EU Development Policy: Constitutional and Legislative Foundation(s). Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 15: 699-718.
- Schütze, Robert. (2012). 'European Fundamental Rights and the Member States: From "Selective" to "Total" Incorporation?'. Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 14.
- Schütze, Robert. (2011). '"Delegated Legislation" in the (new) European Union: A Constitutional Analysis'. Modern Law Review 74(5): 661-693.
- Schütze, Robert. (2011). 'Three "Bills of Rights" for the European Union'. Yearbook of European Law 30(1): 131-158.
- Schütze, Robert (2010). 'From Rome to Lisbon: "Executive Federalism" in the (New) European Union'. Common Market Law Review 47(5): 1385-1427.
- Schütze, Robert. (2009). 'Reforming the "CAP": From "Vertical" to "Horizontal" Harmonization'. Yearbook of European Law 28(1): 337-361.
- Schütze, Robert (2009). 'On "Federal" Ground: The European Union as an (Inter)national Phenomenon'. Common Market Law Review 46(4): 1069-1105.
- Schütze, Robert. (2009). 'Subsidiarity after Lisbon: Reinforcing the Safeguards of Federalism?'. Cambridge Law Journal 68(3): 525-536.
- Schütze, Robert. (2008). 'Lisbon and the Federal Order of Competences: A Prospective Analysis'. European Law Review 33(5): 709-722.
- Schütze, Robert. (2007). EC Law and International Agreements of the Member States - An Ambivalent Relationship? Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 9: 387-440.
- Schütze, Robert. (2007). 'Dual Federalism Constitutionalised: The Emergence of Exclusive Competences in the EC legal order. European Law Review 32(1): 3-28.
- Schütze, Robert. (2006). 'Supremacy without Pre-emption? The very slowly emergent Doctrine of Community Pre-emption'. Common Market Law Review 43(4): 1023-1048.
- Schütze, Robert. (2006). 'Co-operative Federalism Constitutionalised: The Emergence of Complementary Competences in the EC legal order'. European Law Review 31(2): 167 - 184.
- Schütze, Robert. (2006). 'The Morphology of Legislative Power in the European Community: Legal Instruments and Federal Division of Powers'. Yearbook of European law 25(1): 91-151.
- Schütze, Robert. (2004). 'Parallel External Powers in the European Community: From “cubist” perspectives towards “naturalist” constitutional principles?'. Yearbook of European Law 23(1): 225-274.
- Schütze, Robert. (2003). 'Organized Change towards an ‘Ever Closer Union’ Article 308 EC and the Limits To the Community’s Legislative Competence'. Yearbook of European Law 22: 79 -115.
- Schütze, Robert. (2003). Dynamic Integration – Article 308 and Legislation in the course of the Common Market: A review essay. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 23: 333-344.
Other (Print)
- Schütze, Robert. (2012). 'Drept constitutional european'.
- Schütze, Robert. (2011). 'Da la Roma la Lisbona: "Federalism executiv" in (noua) Uniune Europeană'. Revista Română de Drept European 15-49.
- Schütze, Robert. (2010). 'Supremaţie fără aplicare prioritară? Apariţia foarte lentă'. Revista Română de Drept European 15-35.
Working Paper
- Schütze, Robert (2020). Models of Demoicracy: Some Preliminary Thoughts. 2020/08.
- Schütze, Robert. (2020). "Re-Constituting" the Internal Market: Towards a Common Law of International Trade?
- Schütze, Robert (2019). From Utopia to Apologia: International Normativity in the Long Nineteenth Century.
- Schütze, Robert (2018). Re-reading Dassonville: Meaning and Understanding in the History of European Law.
- Schütze, Robert. (2007). On 'Middle Ground' The European Community and Public International Law. 13: 30.
- Schütze, Robert (2005). Sharpening the Separation of Powers through a Hierarchy of Norms? - Reflections on the Draft Constitutional Treaty's Regime for legislative and executive Law-Making. EIPA Working Paper (01/2005).