PhD student: Mrs Dr L. Van Der Auwermeulen

Promotor: S. Van Garsse

Duration: 1/2/2019 - 31/1/2023

PhD defence: Hasselt, 8/11/2023

Abstract:

Inter-municipal cooperation is one of the instruments available to local authorities to increase their administrative power and to respond to the legally complex and socially challenging context in which they are expected to operate. Local authorities that wish to cooperate with one or more neighbouring authorities run up against several boundaries in this respect. Crossing borders that divide the national territory is a matter of national law. However, if municipalities wish to cooperate with their counterparts on the other side of the national border, they must fall back on an international or European law framework. Such legal frameworks, however, generally leave administrative law open to discussion. The central research question of the doctoral research is also "What is the role of administrative law when local authorities cooperate across borders in a multi-level legal order?