Constantina Lazaridou is a Lecturer in Law at Queen Mary. She talks to us about herself, and her research.
I was born (and raised) in Nicosia, Cyprus in October 1994 – yes, I will soon be entering the big 30s this year!!! - I also have Welsh roots from my father’s side.
I received my LLB from Cardiff University and my LLM in Advanced Legal Studies, from the University of Reading. I then proceeded to undertake my PhD in EU law at the University of Birmingham which I completed in 2022.
I have also worked as a litigation lawyer at a law firm in Cyprus, where I also completed my pupillage, and I am currently a registered non-practicing member of the Cyprus Bar Association.
I have recently been awarded the Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.
Before joining Queen Mary, I was a lecturer in law and course leader of the Law LLB programme at Buckinghamshire New University (BNU). At BNU, I was a module leader of various UG modules, such as EU law, Criminal law, Family law and Dissertation/Research-focused modules. This provided me with immense experience in module and curriculum design, which I will implement to my teaching at Queen Mary.
I will be teaching modules which relate to my research expertise, such as EU law at UG level and EU Trade law at PG level. I will also be teaching Family law, of which I have experience from my time as a lecturer at BNU.
The teaching of EU law modules at Queen Mary and especially EU Trade law is directly analogous to my specialist area of research. More specifically in my PhD I explored the ways in which the European Court of Justice (ECJ) treats the interactions between economic freedoms and fundamental rights. By analysing the tools that the ECJ applies in such cases, as well as the trends and hierarchies deriving from the jurisprudence, my research proposes an alternative and more just resolution regarding the relationship of the two principles. This assists in delivering the missing legal certainty, since currently the ECJ’s jurisprudence remains inconsistent on the matter, leading to a lack of sufficient legal guidance. This will also in turn achieve sufficient protection for both principles, achieving more just rulings for Union citizens whose varying interests clash and are unsure as to the availability and type of legal solutions for this.
I am currently working on publishing these findings and I have already presented my research findings at various conferences around Europe, including the Institute of European Studies, Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Brussels, Belgium and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark as well as around the UK.