Biography

Lola Avril holds a PhD in political science (université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne, 2019). Her research interests lie at the intersection of the history of European law, European public policy analysis and the sociology of intermediaries in the European Union political system. Her dissertation studies the rise, institutionalization and forms of contestations of regulatory lawyers, intermediates of the European Regulatory State.

As a Max Weber Fellow, Lola intends to investigate the development of common practices and perceptions among lawyers appearing before the ECJ. Her research will focus on different key historical moments of this socialization process: cartel cases in the 1970s and 1980s, attempts by the ECJ to foster a community of lawyers in the 1980s, the creation of the Court of First Instance and the development of circulations between the Courts and law firms in the 1990s.

Lola is a founding member and co-director of the Research Group on the European Union (GrUE) in France. As a member of the steering committee of the History of European Integration Research Society (HEIRS), she co-organized its 15th annual conference in may 2019, “Experts, knowledge and the (de)legitimization of European policies”. She is also a member of a three-year research project financed by the CNRS on economic expertise in French competition law. She was a member of the FOLIE project (Forms of Life and Legal Integration in Europe) at Sciences Po Law School (supervised by Loïc Azoulai).

Lola has served as a teaching assistant in courses on European institutions (Master students, Sciences Po Paris), Comparative political science (Master students, université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne). She has taught a course on international relations (Master students, université Paris-Dauphine).