Nicolas has an LL.M. in European law (College of Europe with a “très bien” reference), a Master’s in European studies (organised jointly by the Humboldt University, the Free Univesity and the Technical University under the auspices of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with an “excellent” reference), a diploma from the IEP in Lyon (politics and administration department, public service subsidiary), a Masters in macroeconomics (Pierre Mendès France University, with a “bien” reference) and a Masters in public law (Lyon II University). Having been a trainee lawyer for a year in the Antitrust Competition and Trade department in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Brussels, he was academic assistant for two years in the legal studies’ department of the College of Europe. He then joined the legal service of the French Competition Authority as a legal counsellor, where he was in charge of having the compatibility of the sanction procedure with Article 6 of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) approved by the Council of State and the Constitutional Council. He also had the chance to deal with several disputes dealing with restrictive competition practices or aiming at specifying the notion of restriction by object (before the Court of Appeal in the presence of the European Commission acting as an amicus curiae). He joined the Centre for European Law in 2014.

Research activities

His research activities mainly cover European constitutional law (the autonomy of the law of the EU) looked at via different material fields:

• The deconcentrated application of competition law.
• Punitive administrative sanctions (and dialogue between European jurisdictions – EU and ECtHR and national ones).
• The mechanisms to regulate disputes (and their compatibility with the monopoly of jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union).
• The ‘smart sanctions’ other than those relating to the anti-terrorist struggle.

Teaching activities

At the Centre for European Law, Nicolas is involved in the following teaching:

• Seminar entitled: ‘L’avis 2/13 : une lumière nouvelle sur l’autonomie de l’ordre juridique de l’Union?’, attached to the course on European constitutional law.
• Seminar on research methodology in European law (Tran-O608).
• Work on end of studies internship (Droi-O621, jusqu’en 2016).
• Collaborative project (Proj-O621).
• Supervision of the team taking part in the European Law Moot Court (Droi-O625, up until 2015).

Outside the Centre for European Law, Nicolas has carried out the following teaching activities:

• ‘Protection des droits fondamentaux en Europe’, Azarbaidjan Diplomatic Academy, Center of Excellence in EU Studies, organised by the Delegation of the EU (2015, 4h).
• ‘Protection des droits fondamentaux lors des opérations militaires EUFOR’, AYAPE, European Parliament (2015, 3h).
• Organisation of a simulation game relating to EU-Switzerland negotiations at the Swiss Mission to the EU (GEM Graduate Summer School – on ‘From brussels to geneva – the EU & global multilateral negotiations’ (2015, 16h).
• ‘Droit institutionnel européen’ (attached to the course on European constitutional law of Professor D. Hanf, 2009-11, 12h).
• Supervision of the team taking part in René Cassin competition (2009-11, with teams winning the first prize, the prize of best plea and the prize of best dissertation).
• Supervision of the team taking part in the ELMC (2009-11, with several qualifications for the final in Luxembourg).