The CompaRe project employs new student researchers every year to bring a fresh perspective to its work.

Claire Blaisdell, European Law L.LM

Claire Blaisdell is a student of the LLM of European Law at Leiden University. She attended the University of Amsterdam Bsc (Hons) of Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics with a 2015 Holland Scholarship and a major in law. As a recipient of the Shanghai Summer Scholarship, Claire completed an exchange to Fudan University to study Chinese Politics and Media and Chinese language in 2018. During her studies she has developed an interest in the interaction between the rule of law and regional integration, specifically within African regional organizations. She is currently a research assistant at the CompaRe Institute.

Elena Fatou, European Law L.LM

Elena Fatou is a current student of the LL.M. European Law programme at Leiden Law School and a research assistant at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Comparative Regional Integration (CompaRe). She graduated with a joint bachelor’s degree in Law and International Relations at Universidad Pontificia Comillas ICAI-ICADE in 2018 and completed an LL.M. in Spanish Law with a major in Tax Law in 2020 at the same institution. She has two years of work experience in the fields of Tax and Labour Law and passed the Spanish Bar in 2020. Furthermore, she has been involved in development cooperation field work in Eastern Africa for the last five years. Academically, Elena is particularly interested in tax harmonisation and economic integration in Latin America and Eastern Africa and the fundamental rights issues that those processes might encompass.

Valentine Szita Marshall, European Law L.LM

Valentine Szita Marshall is an LL.M. candidate pursuing the European Law programme at the Leiden Law School, and a research assistant at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of Comparative Regional Integration (CompaRe). He has previously completed two bachelors, a BSc in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics, or PPLE (Cum Laude) and an LL.B. in Dutch law, both at the University of Amsterdam. He has work experience in both European competition law and international arbitration, two of his primary academic interests. He is greatly interested in private international law, differing theories of regional integration, and the way the two interact.