Thesis defence Regulating Security under EU Strategic Autonomy Add to calendar 2026-05-18 14:30 2026-05-18 16:30 Europe/Rome Regulating Security under EU Strategic Autonomy Sala degli Stemmi Villa Salviati - Castle YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates May 18 2026 14:30 - 16:30 CEST Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati - Castle Organised by Department of Law PhD thesis defence by Lukas Schaupp This thesis offers a macro-level account of the EU’s turn towards strategic autonomy and its implications for the role of law in structuring and legitimising regulatory action. It is guided by the question of how an increasingly security-oriented approach to policymaking alters the function of law when regulatory frameworks are mobilised to serve strategic autonomy, understood as a broader structural shift that elevates security considerations across multiple areas of EU governance. Using trade policy as a central case study, the thesis advances the argument that the EU is beginning to replicate key features of the U.S. security-centred model of governance. This transformation has been accompanied by the rise of state security consequentialism, a mode of reasoning in which the legitimacy of legal and regulatory action is judged primarily by their contribution to security outcomes. This risk emerges under strategic autonomy, once security becomes the dominant justificatory frame and value pluralism is progressively eroded. To examine how this shift reshapes the law, the thesis draws on the theories of Austin and Kelsen, understanding them as primarily power-enabling and primarily power-constraining, respectively. Applying the Kelsenian perspective to recent EU trade regulation reveals that the authorisation of action for security purposes is increasingly prioritised at the expense of law’s regulatory function, thus moving the EU’s normative order closer to a power-enabling system in this area. The thesis goes on to outline the risks of this security-driven turn for the EU’s incomplete regulatory state. It argues that by narrowing debate and legitimising extraordinary measures, security operates as a commanding justificatory frame that leaves the regulatory processes vulnerable to various mechanisms of regulatory capture. Because of this, it finds that strategic autonomy creates a structural tension between security-driven decisiveness and the preservation of regulatory integrity that requires continuous rebalancing. Register Related events