Cristina Parau

My research and teaching interests lie in the comparative politics of Europe in the post-Communist era, especially the evolution and design of institutions in light of the influence of transnational elite networks. Currently I am conducting legal-political research into the power relations between majoritarian and non-majoritarian institutions, the judiciary in particular. This research is focussed on how and why ideas about the judiciary's role and relation to society have filtered into Europe from the US and are becoming the norm throughout post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and beyond. My previous research, under a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, concerned judicial independence in selected post-Communist CEE countries. I have also researched the influence of Europeanization on State-civil society relations in Eastern Europe, yielding publications for one of which I won West European Politics' Vincent Wright Prize for significant contribution to comparative European politics.

Current research activities

I have just begun researching the politics of UK constitutionalism as part of CoPolis: A Research Project on Constitutional Politics (Trento University, Italy). I am also in the midst of analysing the results of a cross-national survey of judges in Eastern Europe to discover the degree of their integration in transnational judicial networks as well as their perceptions of their role as judges. I am also in process of writing a number of articles on transnational elite networking, the dormancy of CEE Parliaments concerning the design of judiciary institutions, and the origins of judiciary governance norms in the Council of Europe.

Research Areas and Interests

The power of non-majoritarian institutions

Judiciaries and their relationship with elected representatives

Transnational networks and elites

Europeanization

Environmental Governance