Damjan Kukovec is a Senior Lecturer in Law and a Co-Leader of the PhD Programme at Middlesex School of Law in London. Before joining the Middlesex faculty, Dr Kukovec taught at Harvard Law School, Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) Law School in Rio de Janeiro, Kent Law School in Brussels, University of Ljubljana School of Law and the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. He graduated first in his class at University of Ljubljana School of Law and earned his LL.M. and S.J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Prior to entering academia, Dr Kukovec practised for the Legal Service of the European Commission in Brussels. He represented the Commission in front of the European Court of Justice in references for preliminary rulings, infringement proceedings, and direct actions. He successfully argued numerous cases concerning the free movement of goods and services, public procurement, and automotive, chemicals, and environmental legislation.
Also, he practised at the European Court of Justice, and clerked for the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, drafting historic decisions including Fofana—Illegal Delegation of Powers by UN and Norman—Child Recruitment.
Dr Kukovec wrote his dissertation at Harvard under the supervision of Duncan Kennedy, Gráinne de Búrca, and Mark Tushnet. His dissertation developed a new framework for understanding the European Union, which suggested new tools for addressing global hierarchies and inequality. He proposed that the dominant relationship within the Union is between the core and the periphery, categories defined by a privilege to harm, rather than by an interplay of protectionism and autonomy or by constitutionalism. His dissertation identified a new economic doctrine for the European Union’s internal market – goods dumping. As part of the project, he developed a constructivist theory of justice, arguing that injustice is being continually constructed anew and that law should be understood as a hierarchical struggle.
Beside extensive publication record in the field of European Union law, competition law, and international trade, he is also writing in the field of legal theory and public international law. His work has been published by the European Law Journal, Michigan Journal of International Law, Columbia Journal of European Law, Harvard Journal of International Law, and other law reviews as well as by numerous peer-reviewed publications. His research can be found at SSRN and academia.
Dr Kukovec teaches courses on European Union Law, International Trade, Competition Law, and Legal Theory. He supervises student research in all these fields, as well as in international law, global governance, and critical legal theory.
He has given numerous guest lectures at universities worldwide, including at Yale Law School, Vienna University School of Law, Sciences Po Law School, Oxford University Faculty of Law, and Tel Aviv University. He is regularly contacted by the European Parliament and the European Commission, to provide expert opinion on a variety of European Union law questions, including posting of workers, free movement of services, and the rule of law. Dr Kukovec is also regularly contacted by the media to comment on the European Union, Brexit and international trade.
He has won numerous awards and grants, including several academic research grants from Harvard Law School and the Max Weber fellowship from the EUI in Florence. He was a Parus and Rotary Ljubljana award winner and is currently funded as part of the Nova Revija (New Journal) project and participates in the Horizon 2020 Project “Reconnect” on the citizens’ participation in the EU.
English, German, French, Croatian, Slovenian (native)
