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Tagged: Rule of Law

re:constitution / Rule of Law Reflections

Bridging Brexit and the Values Crisis: From Constitutional Resistance to Deliberation?

By Oliver Garner. It may have seemed that the EU’s “Rule of Law crisis” was finally being resolved as 2023 commenced. For the first time since 2015, action by the EU institutions induced both Hungary and Poland to adopt legislation on the organisation of their judiciaries. The decisive factor appears to have been the use of financial pressure through the withholding of EU funds. Nevertheless, problems on a number of fronts suggest that this will not be the silver bullet to solve the values crisis.

re:constitution / Rule of Law Reflections

Copyright as a Rule of Law Challenge

By Viktoria Kraetzig. The copyright/free speech conflict is inherent in copyright law: copyright grants its owners a limited monopoly on a work, which is also a communication content. If third parties copy the work, they might infringe copyright while invoking their fundamental right of free speech. The conflict arises because free speech doctrine does not distinguish whether someone speaks with own or other people’s words, whether something has been said for the first, second or hundredth time: speaking is speaking. And so is copying.

Issues / re:constitution

Elections, Rule of Law and Democracy in Greece

By Taygeti Michalakea. In the 2023 elections, Greece’s ‘New Democracy’ party won a second term with 40.5% of the vote, while the opposition Syriza received only 17.8%. Smaller far-right parties also gained seats, raising concerns about the rule of law. Issues such as weakened independent institutions, lack of media freedom, widespread surveillance, and political interference in the judiciary are contributing to this decline. This text explores how these factors are undermining democracy and eroding fundamental freedoms in Greece.

re:constitution / Rule of Law Reflections

Refugee and Asylum Seeker Rights in Europe: Gendered Crimmigration Experiences in the Dutch and Spanish Cases

By Colleen Boland. Europe faces increasing patterns of crimmigration, or the merging of criminal and migration law, discourse and practices. Refugees and asylum seekers are conflated with more general migrant populations, and are likewise subjected to these phenomena as well. This article asks how refugee or asylum seeker women experience or negotiate crimmigration rhetoric, policies and practices, particularly in light of the EU fundamental rights to asylum and non-discrimination.

re:constitution / Rule of Law Reflections

An Essay on Rule-of-Law Culture and Constitutional Resilience

By Théo Fournier. This essay argues that rule-of-law culture could be an avenue of research to address the issue of constitutional resilience of liberal democratic regimes, i.e. the capacity of liberal constitution to resist the passage of time and to remain legitimate in the eyes of the citizenry.

re:constitution / Rule of Law Reflections

Taking Rights Consciousness Seriously: A Rights-Based Approach to Promoting Rule of Law Culture in the EU

By Catherine Warin. This article argues that enhancing rights consciousness across societies in Europe can help make individual rights a reality and strengthen individual and collective confidence in the EU’s legal system. The author gives a brief reminder of the nature, function and value of rights in the EU legal system and discusses rights consciousness as a precondition for rights effectiveness.

Conversations / re:constitution

The Rule of Law Restoration in Poland – Legal and Political Challenges

In this conversation with RevDem editor and a re:constitution fellow Kasia Krzyżanowska, Krzysztof Izdebski (Batory Foundation) and Bartosz Pilitowski (Court Watch Poland) discuss all the current challenges the Polish government is facing with the legal legacy left by the Law and Justice party. How to restore trust in the judicial institutions? How to deal with the irregularly established Constitutional Tribunal and the National Council of the Judiciary? What should be the role of the judges in designing the judicial system?

re:constitution / Rule of Law Reflections

Rule of Law or Rule of Norms? Informal Institutions and their Role for Democratic Resilience

By Veronica Anghel. This contribution delves into the intricate interplay between formal and informal institutions in contemporary
European political landscapes. It investigates the vital role of informal institutions in supplementing and at times
circumventing the formal rules that define the parameters of political functioning.

re:constitution / Rule of Law Reflections

The Identity of the EU Legal Order as a “Shield” for Judicial Independence in the (Polish) Rule of Law Crisis

By Maciej Taborowski. This contribution takes a closer look at how the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has shaped the value of rule of law as the “very identity of the EU legal order”, and how it has used the rule of law to build a “shield” that serves as a defense for national judges against interference with their independence on the basis of the principle of effective judicial protection. Such a “shield” is particularly useful in those EU Member States where there is an ongoing rule of law crisis, such as Poland.

Issues / re:constitution

Fighting Impunity Through Intermediaries: The European Union, International Criminal Justice, and the Rule of Law

By Raphael Oidtmann. What legal principle – that may also be derived from its treaty framework – determined and guided EU support towards Ukraine? This contribution argues that at least certain streams of EU assistance for Ukraine in countering the Russian Federation’s aggression – namely those aimed at ending impunity for international crimes – have been organized within a distinct rule of law context.