Franca Feisel

Franca Feisel is a current Researcher at the European University Institute (EUI) under the Department of Law, part of the 2020 cohort. Her work focuses on democracy within the European Union (EU), particularly transnational democracy and militant democracy.

Her research explores the EU's democratic self-defense mechanisms, including responses to member state backsliding, and she has contributed to outputs such as the National mini-public report: Italy (2024) and Bolstering democracy in the EU: a progress report (2024). Supervised by Martijn Hesselink, her thesis examines the EU's democratic governance through normative and critical lenses.

Her recent publications address tensions in EU democratic reforms, including analyses of the 'defence of democracy' package (2023) and the infringement action against Lex Tusk (2023). She actively engages with legal theory and transnational law frameworks in her work.

As a researcher, Franca collaborates on projects related to EU democratic processes and governance, including participation in the European Journal of Legal Studies as part of the EUI academic community.