Eline Couperus (E.)

Eline Couperus is a Junior Lecturer-PhD Researcher at the Department of Foundations and Methods of Law at Maastricht University. Her PhD research is entitled ‘Economic Freedoms in a Social Europe’ and focuses on the evaluation of the freedom to conduct a business (art. 16 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU) as a fundamental economic liberty from a legal philosophical perspective. She conducts her PhD under the supervision of  Roland Pierik, Professor of Legal Philosophy at Maastricht University, Sacha Garben, Professor of EU Law at Collège d’Europe in Bruges, and Šejla Imamović, Assistant Professor of European Human Rights Law at Maastricht University.

In her capacity as a lecturer, she taught various courses, including Introduction to Law, Research Methods, Legal Philosophy, Professional Development, History of Law & Justice, and classes on States, Markets and European integration. Alongside teaching, she was also involved in developing courses, such as Foundations and Methods of Tax Law, Legal Philosophy, and Foundations of European Institutionalisation. In addition to teaching, she supervises students writing their thesis.

Eline holds an LLB in Law, an LLB in Tax Law and an LLM in Encyclopedia & Philosophy of Law from Leiden University. In addition, she holds an LLM in International & European Tax Law from the University of Amsterdam.

Eline is particularly interested in the European Court of Justice’s approach of balancing of economic freedoms with other fundamental rights, the question of the democratic deficit of the EU, and the normative and legal philosophical aspects of economic freedoms.