Law Enforcement mobilities Across Borders

The project 'Law Enforcement mobilities Across Borders' (LEmobAb) investigates how practices of cross-border police cooperation (CBPC) contribute to the production of a legal and political European space.

Its overall aim is to connect bottom-up insights from selected border-regions with ongoing legislative developments on EU level aimed at enhancing police cooperation, in particular the upcoming proposal for a new regulation, the Police Cooperation Code.

Three questions lead this research. 1) Empirically, what are the relations and variables between situated bilateral CBPC and the role of legal-geopolitical practice in fostering security cooperation? Conceptually, what role do LE mobilities and border-regions play in the creation of a European space?

And applied, how can qualitative police- and security-research’s understanding of complex social, legal and political dynamics increase its impact?

The focus upon LE mobilities (CBPC) as spatial-legal practice enables to contribute filling three gaps: 1) at scholarly and policy level, an empirical research research gap, 2) at the intersection between social and legal police-cooperation scholarship and critical security and EU studies, the need for space-and-practice sensitive concepts of law-making and of law-enforcement, 3) in public scholarship, the under-used potential of academic knowledge visualisation for increased impact.

This study will produce empirical results accompanied by empirically grounded practice-oriented and space-sensitive concepts, regarding a delicate but core element along the process of European Integration – the exercise of executive powers beyond national jurisdiction.

Results will provide critical understanding of legal frameworks and of social practices which are of relevance to HE cluster III and contemporary EU policy objectives. The innovative PF design will foster a creative and innovate researcher profile. Visual communication will enhance the projects' scientific and public impact.