This research examines whether pro-natalist home-purchase subsidies can boost fertility by improving housing affordability. Focusing on recent Hungarian policies that extend financial support contingent on childbearing, it exploits quasi-experimental variation in eligibility criteria based on age and settlement size. Using administrative records on credit, house transactions, social transfers, and labor-market outcomes, the study will measure the programs’ impact on births, maternal labor outcomes, and housing. The analysis will also estimate the “cost of a child” by relating subsidies to marginal births and explore potential spillover effects on house prices. Findings can inform broader policy debates on fertility incentives.

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In the 20th century, states increasingly sought to apply their laws to situations occurring or originating beyond their borders but threatening their national interests. In more recent times, however, some states started to provide legal accountability for international crimes (such as crimes against humanity) which did not adversely affect them (?universal jurisdiction?). Lately, this evolution to protect ?global values? appears to be expanding into the environmental and socio-economic fields. This project examines whether the traditional international legal framework of jurisdiction (which emphasizes territorial or personal links to the regulating entity) can still accommodate these regulatory developments, or whether, instead, a novel ?global values?-based principle of jurisdiction is crystallizing. The project consists of two pillars. Pillar 1 studies three cases of states and regional organizations unilaterally applying their own laws to (partly) foreign situations considered as threatening global values: climate change, protection of marine resources, and foreign corrupt practices. Pillar 2 is synthetic in nature, and assesses whether, and to what extent, general rules of jurisdiction and jurisdictional restraint concerning the protection of global values are developing, or should develop, across various fields, including but not limited to the fields studied in Pillar 1. The project will utilize the knowledge developed by reaching out to various stakeholders: (prospective) policy-makers, businesses, and the general public. The project will in particular (1) provide training to professionals; (2) launch a blogging and discussion website; (3) co-organize Model United Nations events for students; (4) organize a business game for management and staff of transnational corporations.

Trans persons, whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned to them at birth, face frequent harassment and violence in all regions of the world, often forcing them to hide their true selves. Similarly, intersex individuals, born with sex characteristics that differ from typical notions of male or female bodies, are often stigmatized and subjected to multiple human rights violations, including their right to health, physical integrity, and to be free from torture. Human rights bodies, however, show no agreement on how to legally define violence against trans and intersex persons (T/I), labelling it sometimes as "hate crimes", "transphobia” or “violence based on prejudice”, and even less agreement on which set of norms best to apply. In essence, violence against individuals who challenge traditional gender norms and expectations, such as T/I, constitutes gender-based violence (GBV), yet so far, it has been rarely connected to the GBV frameworks. Issues related to T/I are often addressed as Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) issues, creating a separate pathway. This is problematic since human rights norms on GBV offer a ready-for-use and sophisticated system of protection, currently available only to women. This research examines existing human rights law on violence against T/I, explores the potential of the GBV frameworks and explains their shortcomings. By examining the applicable norms in light of the experiences of T/I, civil society representatives and public officials dealing with cases of violence, it proposes ways to improve them. It will suggest good practices on how to address violence against T/I while challenging stereotypes of sex, sexuality and gender differences. This innovative proposal ‘connects’ two paradigms that now run parallel, GBV and SOGI, and offers a comprehensive approach to GBV, examining the multiple forms of discrimination affecting T/I and exploring how gender, sexual orientation and gender identity interconnect.

Effective legal protection in the European Union requires cooperation between judges based on shared professional values, legal rules and practices. An important point of reference for this in the European Union (EU) are rule-of-law values, including an independent judiciary. This research explores to what extent the judicial cultures in EU member states can develop towards one European judicial culture.