SSH/JURI Institut pour la recherche interdisciplinaire en sciences juridiques (JUR-I)
SSH/SPLE Institut de sciences politiques Louvain-Europe (ISPOLE)
Lisa Di Giacomo is a doctoral researcher focusing on Migration Diplomacy. Her research interests are oriented towards exploring international cooperation on migration through the lens of migration justice, with particular attention to North–South dynamics. She approaches this topic from a legal and human rights perspective, combining normative analysis with empirical research. Her project includes fieldwork and semi-structured interviews in Morocco and Tunisia.
Before starting her PhD, she gained professional experience, notably with Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, a Belgian NGO, as a country-of-origin information researcher and socio-legal counsellor supporting people on the move.
She holds an LL.M. in European and International Law (specialisation in Global Affairs) from Radboud University (The Netherlands) and a Master’s in European Studies (specialisation in European Security and International Stability) from Sciences Po – University of Strasbourg (France).
Réseaux sociaux
Title: EU Migration Diplomacy as Law-Making: An Interdisciplinary Study on Soft Law Formation and its Legal Effects in EU Migration Cooperation with Third Countries.
Summary: The thesis aims to reconceptualise EU migration cooperation as a legal practice with significant implications for human rights and the transnational creation of norms, rather than merely as policy coordination. It questions the notion that soft law is purely symbolic or non-binding, highlighting how non-EU actors contribute to norm production and how informal instruments produce tangible effects, especially regarding migrant rights and domestic legal systems. The Rabat Process is analysed as a key site for the negotiation, contestation, and co-production of normative frameworks.
Funding: FNRS-PDR.