Tommaso Pavone

Tommaso Pavone is Assistant Professor of European politics at the University of Toronto and Visiting Researcher at the ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo. His research traces how interactions between lawyers, courts, and policymakers shape political development, social change, and the rule of law, with a comparative focus on Europe and the European Union (EU). His book published by Cambridge University Press – The Ghostwriters: Lawyers and the Politics Behind the Judicial Construction of Europe – reconstructs how entrepreneurial lawyers promoted the development of the EU by encouraging clients to challenge state laws and mobilizing national courts against their own governments. The book has been praised as “the most important book on European legal integration in decades” and a “stunning achievement” (in reviews by Mark Pollack and Charles Epp) and won six prizes from the American Political Science Association (APSA), the European Union Studies Association (EUSA), and the Law and Society Association (LSA). Pavone’s broader research agenda has produced publications in leading peer-reviewed journals like the American Political Science Review, World Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, Law & Society Review, and Journal of Law & Courts. His work has also been covered in high-profile outlets such as The New York Times, Financial Times, and Politico, and featured in debates in the European Parliament. Before joining the University of Toronto, Pavone was Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona and Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oslo. He received his Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University in 2019.