Fernanda G. Nicola
![[candidate photo]](picture.jpg)
S.J.D. Candidate
Teaching Assistant, European Union Law
Adjunct Professor, New England School of Law
| Office: | LILC 439 |
| Phone: | (617) 495-3453 |
| Fax: | (617) 491-6272 |
| Status: | In Residence |
| Email: | fnicola@law.harvard.edu |
Dissertation
Asymmetry, Distribution and Local Governance in European Integration: A View from Private Law Theory
My dissertation examines the connection between the democratic experiment and the social market economy emerging from European integration. It analyses, through the lenses of private law theory, vertical and horizontal struggles over individual rights and wealth distribution and it develops a new model of governance to address local inequalities and improve democratic participation. The project of European integration stands as a model for economic development and democratization. However, a critical appraisal shows its strengths and weaknesses by highlighting the emergence of rights for European citizens together with wealth inequalities and social exclusion for immigrants. The current assumption in European legal consciousness is that wealth redistribution is almost impossible to achieve at the European level even though distribution of wealth happens through private law harmonization. My aim is to show that in underestimating the distributive consequences of their work, lawyers, judges and bureaucrats end up reinforcing existing structural inequalities between center and periphery, north and south, citizens and immigrants.
Fields of Research and Supervisors
- Comparative Local Government, with Professor Gerald E. Frug, Harvard Law School, Overall Faculty Supervisor
- Private Law Theory, with Professor Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School
- Tort Law and Social Psychology, with Professor Jon D. Hanson, Harvard Law School
- European Law, with Professor Daniela Caruso, Boston University
Additional Research Interests
- Contract Law
- Comparative and International Law
- Intellectual Legal History and Critical Theory
Education
- Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2002-Present
- Harvard Law School, LL.M. (2002)
- P.h.D. Research Fellowship in Comparative Private Law, University of Trento, Italy (2002-2005)
- Law Degree, University of Turin, Italy (2000)
- Post-Graduate Degree in International Trade Law, ILO Training Center, Turin, Italy (1997)
- Political Sciences Degree, University of Turin, Italy (1996)
- Certificat d'Etudes Politiques, Sciences Politiques IEP, Strasbourg, France (1996)
Appointments and Fellowships
- New England School of Law, 2004-2005, Adjunct Professor European Law
- Harvard Law School, 2004-2005, Teaching Assistant, European Law, Professor J.F. Verstrynge
- Harvard Law School, 2003-2005, ELRC, European Law Reading Group coordinator with Anna di Robilant
- Harvard Law School, 2003-2004, Graduate Program Fellow, Visiting Researchers/Scholars Colloquium Coordinator
- Oxford University 2003, Research Fellow, Grant sponsored by the European Commission
- Harvard Law School, 2002-2003, Graduate Program Fellow, LL.M. Advisor
- University of Turin, 2000-2001, Teaching Assistant, Comparative Law
Representative Publications
- Constitutionalizing Tobacco: The Ambivalence of European Federalism, with Fabio Marchetti, forthcoming on Harvard Int’l L.J. Spring 2005
- Book Review, W. BROWN AND J. HALLEY (editors) LEFT LEGALISM/LEFT CRITIQUE (2003) with Anna di Robilant: “Il Liberalismo alle prese con identitá e redistribuzione: Le critiche al rights discourse da parte della sinistra Americana”; Rivista Critica del Diritto Privato, Dicembre 2004
- Book Review, JAMES GORDLEY ED., THE ENFORCEABILITY OF PROMISES IN EUROPEAN CONTRACT LAW (2001); 44 Harvard Int’l L.J. 2003.
Additional Information
- New England School of Law
- (HELA) Harvard European Law Association
- (ELRC) European Law Research Center
- (IUSE) Istituto Universitario di Studi Europei
- Personal Resume
- Languages: English, Italian (native), French, Spanish, Portuguese