Dr Marta Santos Silva is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Research Centre for Justice and Governance at Minho University in Portugal and affiliated member of the Maastricht European Private Law Institute and the Centre of European Law and Politics in Bremen. She obtained her PhD under the supervision of Christian von Bar, with a thesis entitled ‘The Draft Common Frame of Reference as a Toolbox for Domestic Judges’, which was published by the international publisher Springer. She has received several research grants and recognitions, including a PhD fellowship from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation, an Universiteitsfonds Limburg (SWOL) grant and the Europa Prize 2008, which she received for notable academic achievements in several Member States of the European Union.

Marta Santos Silva has been working in academic and policy pan-European projects for the harmonisation of European Private Law since 2005 and has vast international experience in teaching and academic management. The perspectives and insights obtained in her career to date have led to her current research agenda which combines consumer law, digitalisation, and sustainability studies. She has been analysing the potential of nudges for fostering environmental sustainability and how it affects consumer autonomy. Currently, she is studying the virtues of essentialism for consumers and how consumer law can and should react to this alternative consumption trend.