I am an interdisciplinary scholar in my field of research, using methodologies as diverse as those of political science, legal analysis, international relations, and sociology to research and write on a range of topics, especially at the boundary of politics and law and of politics and ecology. I specialise in transnational public policy makers and their interactions with domestic institutions (viz., courts and parliaments) and supranational regimes, especially the Council of Europe and the EU. I adhere to the realist tradition in science: – my research is data-driven rather than method-driven. Fieldwork that gives access to primary data has been the mainspring of my academic career, a hallmark of which is to carefully consider the perspectives that matter to my subjects, not just those that matter to me. I am open to inquiry into any topic of timeliness and interest. This overall approach has yielded a variety of publications, from analyses of public policies enacted in widely differing countries and contexts to studies of the behaviour and motivation of political actors making decisions across many domains (environment, European elections, judiciary revisions, etc.). I am noted for converting research agendas into questions or puzzles that lie outside their field of origin, offering counterintuitive insights into things ‘invisible’ to conventional methods; never minding the sources of data that inspired them.
My own research agenda has focussed on the evolution of institutions due to the power relations in majoritarian and non-majoritarian politics. My first monograph, funded by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, concerned the judiciary’s role in democracy and how and why ideas about its design had filtered into Europe from the US until they became the norm. I have also investigated the influence of Europeanization on State-civil society relations in Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, which led to many (including Prize-winning) publications.
I am currently researching the politics of Net Zero de-carbonization in response to the new global and transnational normative regime; which interlinks fossil fuel transition with air quality and climate change. My project is to explain the causal nexus of scientific knowledge, ideology, and the stratagems of competing actor-constellations or networks seeking to influence the politics of energy.
Editorial boards
British Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
Reviewer
The British Academy, The Economic and Social Research Council, European Journal of Political Science, West European Politics, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Administrative Sciences, Problems of Post-Communism, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, East European Politics, South European Society and Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press
Teaching
Comparative Government (PPE)
ECJ and European Integration (MPhil in European Politics)
Judicialization of Politics in Europe (MPhil in European Politics)
Research summary
The politics of energy transitions
The power of non-majoritarian institutions
The Judiciary’s relation to democracy
Elites and their transnational networks
Europeanization (in Eastern Europe)
Environmental governance
Publications
Work in progress
The Transnational Struggle over Net Zero (book)
Latest publication
2019 Parau, Cristina E. Transnational Networks and Elite Self-Empowerment: The Making of Judiciary in Contemporary Europe and Beyond, Oxford University Press
- Kadlec, O. (2022). 'Review of Cristina E. Parau Transnational Networking and Elite Self-Empowerment', International Journal of Constitutional Law, 16 Nov
- Read a review of my monograph by an anonymous British Academy reviewer
- Read In the Court of Public Opinion: Judicial Supremacy v. The Rule of Law, my reply to LSE Professor Conor Gearty's review of my monograph
- Read my Reply to Bogdan Iancu’s Verfassungsblog review of 'Transnational Networks and Elite Self-Empowerment: The Making of the Judiciary in Contemporary Europe and Beyond'
- Read my Reply to Conor Gearty's EUConst review of ‘Transnational Networks and Elite Self-Empowerment: The Making of Judiciary in Contemporary Europe and Beyond’ (Published in I·CONnect: The Blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law, Jan 2022).
Edited Volumes
2013 Parau, Cristina E. and Bellamy, Richard (eds.) Courts and Representative Democracy. Special Issue of Representation - The Journal of Representative Democracy, 49 (3)
Articles
2023 Parau, Cristina E. (accepted, forthcoming) 'The Philanthropic Privatization of Supranational Justice?' International Journal of Constitutional Law.
Parau, Cristina E. (under review). ‘Natural Resource Extraction & Human Health: Testing Effects of Resource Use & Environmental Quality on Multi-Dimensional Health, 1990-2019’ (with Indra de Soysa).
2022 Parau, Cristina E. ‘Fangst av overnasjonale domstoler og privatisering av rettssystemet.’ Norwegian Journal of Foreign Affairs, 80(4): 465 – 472.
2022 Parau, Cristina E. 'Réseautage et para-légalité. À propos du système judiciaire européen.' Catholica 156: 16-24.
2015 Parau, Cristina E. ‘Explaining Judiciary Governance in Central and Eastern Europe: External Incentives, Transnational Elites and Parliament Inaction’, Europe-Asia Studies (former Soviet Studies), 67(3) (accepted for publication in Dec 2012).
2014 Parau, Cristina E. ‘The 2014 European Elections in Britain: The Counter-revolt of the Masses?’ Studia Politica, XIV(3), pp. 333-365.
2013 Parau, Cristina E. Introduction: Democracy, Courts and The Dilemmas of Representation, Representation - The Journal of Representative Democracy, 49 (3) (with Richard Bellamy).
2013 Parau, Cristina E. The Dormancy of Parliaments: The Invisible Cause of Judiciary Empowerment in Central and Eastern Europe, Representation - The Journal of Representative Democracy, 49 (3).
2013 Parau, Cristina E. Constitutional Designs: Lessons We Can Learn From The Early American Republic, Romanian Journal of Comparative Law, 2, pp. 348-382.
2012 Judiciary-Elected Branch Power Relations and the Search for Truth, Romanian Journal of Comparative Law, 2(2): 28-54.
2010 East Side Story: How Transnational Networks Contested EU Accession Conditionality, Europe-Asia Studies, 62(9):1527-1554.
2009 Impaling Dracula: How EU Accession Empowered Civil Society in Romania, West European Politics, 32(1): 119-141. This article was awarded the 2010 Vincent Wright Memorial Prize by West European Politics. The prize recognizes significant contributions to the study of comparative European politics.
Book chapters
2015 Parau, Cristina E. ‘Environmental Network Governance in Romania: Transnational Norm Entrepreneurs in the Shadow of the EU’ in L. Stan (ed.) Post-Communist Romania at 25: Linking Past, Present and Future, Boulder CO:Rowman & Littlefield.
2014 Parau, Cristina E. ‘Core Principles of the British Constitutions’ (forthcoming)
2014 Parau, Cristina E. ‘Constitutional Ferment in Britain: Towards a Republican Constitution?’ (forthcoming)
2013 Romania's Transnational Constitution: A Tradition of Elite Learning and Self-empowerment in Galligan, D. & Versteeg, M. (eds.) The Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 497-531.
2012 The Drive for Judicial Supremacy in Central and Eastern Europe in Seibert-Fohr, A. (ed.) Judicial Independence in Transition. Springer: Heidelberg (Max Plank Institutes Series on Comparative and International Law), pp. 619-667.
2008 Europeanization as Empowerment of Civil Society: All Smoke and Mirrors? in W.A. Maloney and J. W. van Deth (eds.) From National toward International Linkages? Civil Society and Multi-level Governance, Palgrave.
Book Reviews
2013 Sadurski, Wojciech (2012) Constitutionalism and the Enlargement of Europe, Oxford University Press for West European Politics, 36 (5).
2013 Thorson, Carla (2012) Politics, Judicial Review, and the Russian Constitutional Court, Palgrave Macmillan for Law and Politics Book Review, 23 (5).
2011 Morlino, Leonardo & Wojciech Sadurski (2010) Democratization and the European Union: Comparing Central and Eastern European Post-Communist Countries (London and New York: Routledge), West European Politics, 34(4).
2011 Piana, Daniela (2010) Judicial Accountabilities in New Europe: From Rule of Law to Quality of Justice (Farnham: Ashgate), Law & Society Review, 45(3).
2001 Michael Carley and Ian Christie (2000) Managing Sustainable Development (Earthscan) in Local Environment, 6(3) August 2001.
Policy papers
2011 The Role of Courts in a Democracy: Alternatives to Judicial Supremacy, Policy Brief, Foundation for the Law, Justice and Society.
2011 The Role of Courts in a Democracy, Report of an academic-practitioner workshop & public debate held at Magdalen College, 10-11th February for the Foundation for the Law, Justice and Society (event organised by Dr. Parau)
2008 Environmental NGOs and EU accession conditionality , Newsletter on Development and Transition, LSE-UNDP.
Multimedia
2015 The Politics of a Written Constitution for Britain, Politics in Spires, 12 February; republished by the Blog of The International Association of Constitutional Law, 25 February.
2014 EU election: Romania's looming presidential ballot raises stakes, The Conversation
2013 Q&A with Dr Cristina Parau: Why do politicians let judges have so much power?, Politics in Spires (Blog of the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford and the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge)
2011 The Role of Courts in a Democracy, public debate organised by Dr. Parau at Magdalen College, Oxford, 11th February 2011 (video)
2010 Discussion of Transitional Justice: Patterns and Divergences, paper presented by Dr. Vello Pettai at the seminar series Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: the State of the Art (Politics Department, Oxford)
2009 The East Side Story: How Executive Uncertainty Created an Accession Conditionality that Never Was (Wolfson College podcast)
2005 Marine Conservation in Madagascar (documentary for Green TV) (with R. Scrase) (video)
Other publications
2012 From the Carpathian Peaks to the Dreaming Spires, Romulus, Wolfson College Magazine.
2011 About Mother, Romulus, Wolfson College Magazine
2010 The Oxford Factor in Eastern Europe, Wolfson College Record, (Alumni Magazine),
Conference papers
2015 'Agenda Setting Strategies of Judicial Empowerment', Politics of Judicial Independence and Accountability workshop, Prague, 16-17 October (invited speaker).
2014 ‘The Politics of a Written Constitution for Britain’, presented at the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Contemporary Constitutional Change, workshop co-organised by me and the Constitutional Studies Programme, University of Oxford, 14 November. Read Presentation.
2014 ‘The Politics of Judiciary Reform in Europe’ ECPR, Glasgow, 3-5 September.
2014 Explaining the Drive towards Judicial Supremacy in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe: Transnational Legal Professional Elite Networks and Parliament Dormancy, presented at the Politics of Judicial Independence and Judicial Accountability conference, the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic, Brno, 30-31 May (invited speaker)
2014 Constitutional Ferment in the United Kingdom: Towards a Republican Constitution?, presented at the Constitutional Challenges within the EU and Beyond workshop, Central European University, Budapest, 14 March.
2014 Empowering Judges over Politics: Puzzle and Method, presented at the Presidents Seminars, Wolfson College, Oxford, 3 March
2013 The Dormancy of Parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe: the Invisible Cause of Judiciary Empowerment, paper presented at the Politics Research Colloquium, DPIR, University of Oxford
2013 Judges and Democracy: Judicial Activism in Eastern Europe?, paper presented at Europeanization and Judicial Culture in Contemporary Democracies, 10-12 October, Sibiu, Romania (international conference co-organised by me with Dr. Manuel Gutan)
2012 Explaining Judicial Reforms in Central and Eastern Europe: external incentives, transnational elite networks and Parliament inaction, seminar, Wolfson College, Oxford.
2012 Media and the Role of Transnational Elites in Judicial Reforms in Central Eastern Europe, invited presentation at Media, Democracy and The Rule of Law in Central and Eastern Europe, St. Anthonys College, Oxford.
2011 Identity and Legitimacy: Transnational Influences on Constitution Drafting in Romania, presentation at The Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions workshop, Wadham College, Oxford.
2011 The Drive for Judicial Supremacy in Europe, European Consortium for Political Research Conference (Reykjavik), Panel Courts in Democratic Systems.
2011 The Political and Social Context of Evidentiary Proceedings, keynote speech given at the Public and Private Justice Conference and Course, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 26 May.
2011 EU Accession Conditionality and Transnational Networks, paper presented at the Environmental Governance in South East Europe and the Western Balkans: The Transformative Power of Europe?, LSE, 6 May 2011.
2011 Judicial Reform in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe: Falling in Step with the West?, paper presented at The Role of Courts in a Democracy workshop, Magdalen College, Oxford, 10-11th of February.
2010 East Side Story: How Transnational Coalitions Contested EU Accession Conditionality, paper presented at the ECPR Munster Session of Workshops, 22 - 27 March 2010.
2009 The Outcomes of Judicial Reform in Post-Communist Eastern Europe, paper presented at the Social Foundations of Constitutions workshop, Wolfson College, Oxford University, 8 December.
2009 The East Side Story: How Executive Uncertainty Created an Accession Conditionality that Never Was, paper presented at the Political Science Association Conference, 7-8 April, Manchester
2008 Networking for empowerment in the context of enlargement: Romanian NGOS and trans-national norm entrepreneurs, paper presented at New Directions in Law and Society seminar, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, 25 May 2008
2007 The Executive strikes back: The flowering of Romanian intergovernmentalism, paper accepted at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, August 2007.
2006 Empowerment of civil society through Executive self-constrain in anticipation of EU accession paper accepted at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, WORKSHOP 25 Interest Politics in Post-Communist Democracies, Nicosia April 2006; and presented at the Europeanization of Public Policies workshop, Centre dEtudes Europeennes de Sciences-Po, 30 May 2006
2005 Europeanization as empowerment of civil society: All smoke and mirrors? - paper presented at the European Consortium for Political Research Conference, Budapest, 8-10 September 2005; and at The Institutional Shaping of EU-Society Relations workshop, Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, University of Mannheim, October 14-15, 2005.
2003 Europeanisation of Environmental Governance in Romania paper presented at the EU Law and Accession workshop, European Institute, Queens University, Belfast.
2002 Romanias Administrative Capacity to Implement EU Environmental Legislation paper presented at the Circumpolar PhD Network in Arctic Environmental Studies & European Consortium for Political Researchs PhD Summer School in Sustainable Development, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden.
Reports
2004 The GM Nation Debate, Research Paper, Centre for the Study of Democracy, Westminster University (with Simon Joss and Alison Mohr).
2004 GM Cross-Country Comparison, Research Paper, Centre for the Study of Democracy, Westminster University (with Simon Joss and Alison Mohr).
2003 UK Responses to the 1999 European Elections, report written for the European Public Space Observatory Project, Politics Department, Queen Mary University of London.
2003 UK Responses to the Rise of the Far Right in Europe, report written for the European Public Space Observatory Project, Politics Department, Queen Mary University of London.
2003 UK Responses to the Revision of the Directive on Deliberate Release of GMOs to the Environment, report written for the European Public Space Observatory Project, Politics Department, Queen Mary University of London.
Grants and Prizes
Dec 2013 Lawyers in Politics: A cause of Judicialization?, John Fell Fund Small Grant, Oxford University
Dec 2010 Law Faculty Small Grant to research the spread of the judicial supremacist paradigm to Central and Eastern Europe
July 2010 Vincent Wright Memorial Prize by West European Politics. The prize recognizes significant contributions to the study of comparative European politics.
Apr 2010 British Academy Small Grant to research the Europeanization of Legal Mentalities in Eastern Europe
Mar 2010 Wolfson College (Oxford) Research Grant
Dec 2009 John Fell Fund Grant, Oxford University to conduct preliminary research into the outcomes of judicial reform in Croatia and the Czech Republic
July 2007 British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (250,000 for three years)