ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Meyer-Resende

Michael Meyer-Resende is a lawyer (LL.M. Bruges) who worked in the OSCE, the BBC and the European Commission before co-founding the NGO Democracy Reporting International (DRI). He serves as DRI’s Executive Director.

POSTS BY Michael Meyer-Resende

12 December 2019

History with a Future? The Relevance of the 1989 Round Table Experience for Today

The experience of the Central European round tables has no specific relevance today, but it may be significant in the future. Not in a direct way of copying them and it would be unwise to frame any future political consultation as a being inspired by the 1989 round tables. Yet, if we look at the round tables’ essence, negotiating a peaceful transition with an outgoing power, charting a course between legality and legitimacy, the round tables can tell us something of remaining relevance. Continue reading >>

15 November 2019

Michael Meyer-Resende

When Journalists Weaken Democracy or How to Better Communicate the Rule of Law

Discussing years of controversies between Polish lawyers and the ruling Law and Justice party, the law professor Marcin Matczak concluded: “We won the legal discussions, but we lost the public debate.” Despite manifest violations of the law, Poland’s ruling party did not lose votes in recent parliamentary elections. In Hungary the situation seems to have been even worse. The public debate was not lost, it hardly took place. That’s a problem. Continue reading >>