Professor Julie Smith

Robinson College
  • Professor of European Politics
  • University Teaching Officer
Professor Julie Smith

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About

Professor Julie Smith (Baroness Smith of Newnham) is Professor of European Politics in the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at Cambridge University.

A Fellow and Director of Studies in Politics at Robinson College, from 2013 to 2019 she was the Director of the European Centre at POLIS. From 2016 until 2022 she was Co-Director of the MSt in International Relations, the two-year part-time Masters programme co-organised by POLIS and the University’s Institute for Continuing Education. She is currently Chair of Examiners for Part of the History and Politics Tripos and Co-convenor of the bespoke Evidence and Argument paper.

An expert in European politics, Julie was Head of the European Programme at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) from 1999 until 2003. She has been a member of the House of Lords since 2014 and was a member of the Lords’ International Relations Committee from its creation in 2016 until 2021. Julie read PPE at Brasenose College, Oxford, and took both her MPhil and DPhil in Politics at St. Antony’s College, Oxford.

She was a Hanseatic Scholar in Hamburg and prior to coming to the Centre of International Studies in Cambridge in 1997, Julie taught in the International Relations and European Studies Department of the Central European University in Budapest.

Julie's main academic interests are in the history and politics of the EU. Her research focuses in particular on the UK's relations with the EU and democracy in Europe, including referendums, elections to the European Parliament, and the role of the European and national parliaments in the EU. Recently, her research interest have beyond to shift towards the UK’s bilateral relations with a particular focus on British-German relations. Early findings have been published in German Politics.

She has been involved in many collaborative projects on democracy and EU institutions – mostly recently in Reconnect, a Horizon 2020 project focusing on democracy and the rule of law, the results of which will be published with Oxford University Press in early 2026.

She was the Founding Editor of the Edward Elgar Series on New Horizons in European Politics (2011-17).

Research

My current research focuses on the UK’s bilateral relations with Germany and the UK’s wider relations with the EU. A second strand of research centres on democracy and the role of parliaments in British and European politics.

Key publications: 

Books

Journal articles

Other publications: (selected)

Books

  • The Palgrave Handbook of National Parliaments and the European Union (2015), co-editor (with Claudia Hefftler, Christine Neuhold and Olivier Rozenberg) pp. xxvii, 727 plus Index
  • Reinvigorating European Elections: the Implications of Electing the European Commission (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2005), pp. 148
  • Through the Paper Curtain: Insiders and Outsiders in the New Europe, co-edited with Charles Jenkins (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2003), pp. xi, 191 plus Index
  • The New Bilateralism: the UK’s Relations within the EU, with Mariana Tsatsas (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2002), pp. xiii, 103
  • Europe’s Elected Parliament (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. x, 178 plus Index
  • Democracy in the New Europe, edited with Elizabeth Teague (London: Greycoat Press, March 1999), pp. xvi, 310 plus Index
  • A Sense of Liberty: A Short History of the Liberal International 1947-1997 (London: Liberal International, 1997), pp. x, 125 plus Index
  • Eminent Europeans: Personalities who shaped contemporary Europe, edited with Martyn Bond and William Wallace (London: Greycoat Press, 1996), pp. xiv, 318. A Czech translation, Význaní Evropané, was published in 1998 (Prague: Vydal Evropský literární klub)
  • Voice of the People: The European Parliament in the 1990s (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, revised and expanded version of Citizens’ Europe, 1995), pp. xi, 116
  • Citizens’ Europe: The European Elections and the Role of the European Parliament (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1994), pp. vii, 75

Articles

  • Special Issue: ‘Analysing the Role of Parliaments in European Economic Governance’, co-editor with Ian Cooper and Alexandra Maatsch, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 70, Issue 4, October 2017, pp. 645-739
  • ‘Governance Without Democracy? Analysing the Role of Parliaments in European Economic Governance after the Crisis – Conclusions’, co-authored with Ian Cooper, in Special Issue of Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 70, Issue 4, October 2017, pp, 728-39, doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsx019
  • ‘Europa und das Vereinigte Königreich – Kleine Geschichte der Beziehungen seit 1945’, in Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, Special Issue on Brexit, Vol. 49-50, December 2016, pp. 11-16
  • ‘David Cameron’s EU renegotiation and referendum pledge: a case of déjà vu?’ British Politics, September 2016, Vol. 11, Issue 3, pp. 324-46
  • ‘Between ideology and pragmatism: Liberal party politics at the European level,’ Acta Politica, 2014, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 105-21
  • ‘Energy dependency and Europe’s struggle to speak with a single voice – a Russian problem?’ in the inaugural special issue of the International Journal of Energy Security and Environmental Research: ‘To Russia with Love’ – EU Energy Security and its Geopolitical Challenges’ (with Daniel Dugmore), Vol 1, No. 1, Jan 2013, pp.17-32
  • Editor of ‘Forty Years: the UK and Europe’, Special issue of International Affairs, Vol. 88, No. 6, November 2012
  • ‘The European dividing line in party politics’ in ‘Forty Years on’, Special Issue of International Affairs, Vol. 88, No. 6, November 2012, pp. 1277-95.
  • ‘Legitimacy and Democracy in the 21st Century European Union’, Politika Annual Journal 2009 (Hong Kong), pp. 74-9
  • ‘Towards consensus? Centre-right parties and immigration policy – the UK and Ireland’, in Journal of European Public Policy Special Issue on ‘Immigration and the parties of the Centre-right in Europe’, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2008, pp. 415-431
  • ‘A Missed Opportunity? New Labour’s European Policy 1997 – 2005’, International Affairs, Vol. 81, No. 4, July 2005, pp. 703-21
  • Co-editor with Erin Delaney of ‘Europe’s Constitutional Future – Federal Lessons for the European Union’, Special Issue of Regional and Federal Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, June 2005
  • With Erin Delaney, ‘Introduction: Europe’s Constitutional Future – Federal Lessons for the European Union’, Regional and Federal Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, June 2005, pp. 1-12
  • ‘Europe: Where does it begin and end’, Special Issue of International Affairs, Vol. 76, No. 3, July 2000, co-edited with Caroline Soper; contributed ‘Introduction and Overview’, pp. 437-441
  • ‘The 1975 Referendum’ in Journal of European Integration History, Vol. 5, Number 1, 1999, pp.41-56 [Published in French as ‘Le référendum britannique de 1975’ in Élisabeth du Réau and Robert Frank, eds., Dynamiques européennes Nouvel Espace Nouveaux acteurs 1969-1981 (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2002)]
  • ‘Appendix The 1994 European Elections: Twelve into One Won’t Go’ in West European Politics Special Issue on ‘The Crisis of Representation’, Vol. 18, No. 3, July 1995, pp. 199-217
  • With William Wallace, ‘Democracy versus Technocracy? European Integration and the Problem of Popular Consent’ in West European Politics Special Issue on ‘The Crisis of Representation’, Vol. 18, No. 3, July 1995, pp. 199-217

Book chapters

  • ‘The Brexit Referendum’ in John Erik Fossum and Christopher Lord, eds., Handbook on the European Union and Brexit (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2023), pp. 42-55
  • ‘Fighting to “Take Back Control”: The House of Lords and Brexit’ in Thomas Christiansen and Diane Fromage, eds., Brexit and Democracy: The Role of Parliaments in the UK and the European Union (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan imprint of Springer Nature Ltd, 2019), pp. 81-103
  • ‘National Parliaments and the European Union – a View from Westminster’, in Davor Jančić, ed., National Parliaments after the Lisbon Treaty and the Euro Crisis: Resilience or Resignation? (Oxford: OUP, 2017), pp. 77-95
  • ‘The United Kingdom’ in Donatella M. Viola, ed., Routledge Handbook of European Elections (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), pp. 213-42
  • ‘Europe: The Coalition’s Poisoned Chalice’ in Anthony Seldon and Mike Finn, The Coalition Effect, 2010-15 (Cambridge: CUP, 2015), pp. 370-96
  • ‘Westminster and the European Union: Ever-Increasing Scepticism?’ (with Ariella Huff), pp.312-31 and ‘Conclusion: from “Latecomers” to “Policy Shapers” - the Role of National Parliaments in the “post-Lisbon” Union’ (with Christine Neuhold), pp. 668-86, in The Palgrave Handbook of National Parliaments and the European Union (2015) op. cit.
  • ‘Parliamentary Scrutiny of Europe: What Lessons from our Neighbours?’ In Measured or Makeshift: Parliamentary Scrutiny of the EU, pp. 51-57 (London: Hansard Society, October 2013, available online.
  • ‘General Survey on The European Union’ in Western Europe 2010 (Routledge 2009; updated annually thereafter until 2019)
  • ‘Working together: the need for bilateral and small group cooperation in the enlarged EU’, in Attila Ágh and Alexandra Ferencz, eds, Overcoming the EU Crisis: EU Perspectives after the Eastern Enlargement (Budapest: ‘Together for Europe’ Research Centre and Foundation, 2007), pp. 264-288, ISBN: 978-963-503-361-4.
  • ‘Political Parties in Global Politics’ in Daphné Josselin and William Wallace, eds., Non-state Actors in World Politics (London and Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001), pp. 59-75
  • ‘How European Are European Elections?’ in John Gaffney, ed., Political Parties and the European Union (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 275-90

Teaching and supervision

Teaching: 

The History and Politics of the European Union (Part 2 POLIS paper); Evidence and Argument (History and Politics Tripos); Crises in European Politics (MSt in International Relations).

Research supervision: 

Post-graduate supervision in the History and Politics of the contemporary Europe; European elections and referendums; the UK’s relations with the EU; and the UK’s bilateral relations with Member States, especially Germany and France.