19 February 2024
EU’s Involvement in the Renewal of the Spanish Council of the Judiciary
The growing political polarization of Western liberal democracies often leads to situations of political deadlock that require the intervention of an external authority capable of untangling the knot. After the second (fruitless) meeting held today between Commissioner Reynders and representatives of the Spanish government and the main opposition party, there is no simple solution in sight to an issue of the renewal of the Spanish Council of the Judiciary with significant implications for the immediate future of the Spanish political scenario. In this blog, I argue that underneath all the technical layers of legal order invoked under the generic defence of the rule of law, there are political and democratic debates for which the EU may play an important yet uncertain and questionable role. Continue reading >>
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19 February 2024
Restoration of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal as Reading the Constitution Forward
The question of how to restore the fallen and degenerated body that once was the Polish Constitutional Tribunal is finally to make its way to the Parliament this week. The stakes are clear: If we get lost in legalese and accept half-baked solutions, it will taint all ambitions and legislative projects aimed at restoring the rule of law in Poland. To avoid this mistake, the “fake court” should be “zeroed out” and newly appointed. Continue reading >>
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16 February 2024
Heyday of Autocratic Legalism in Slovakia
Slovakia’s parliament approved an amendment to its criminal code and associated legislation that, if it comes into effect, will significantly reduce the prescription periods for various crimes including rape, the penalties for others, and abolish the Special Prosecutor’s Office. Despite a narrative claiming to commit to restorative justice by reducing lengths for prison sentences and implementing a more diverse set of conviction options, the legislative changes perpetuate violence through autocratic legalism on the vast majority of the Slovak population, and especially those vulnerable to abuses of power. This assault on the criminal legal system in Slovakia by the ruling illiberal coalition is expected to put the Constitutional Court under pressure. Continue reading >>
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16 February 2024
Polish Re-Democratisation as “Building Back Better”
Since the new Polish government took power, it has taken first steps to restore the rule of law. These have been quite different in nature, from the soft appeals to comply with the case law of the CJEU to more uncompromising and confrontational measures, like taking control of the public broadcasting TVP. It is clear that restoring a damaged liberal democracy requires a different mindset than fighting its demise. While the latter aims to strategically delay the anticipated undemocratic endeavours, the former must constructively rebuild. I call this ‘Building Back Better’, akin to the UN risk-reduction approach employed to avoid future disasters. Continue reading >>17 January 2024
Rule of Law Abnegated
This year is the second winter that thousands of asylum seekers will spend on the cold streets of Brussels. More than 2700 of them are still without any material assistance and shelter. 869 of them have a domestic court order recognising their right to reception, yet the Belgian government has consistently refused to implement them. This deliberate refusal to secure the human rights of migrants, especially where these are single males, is not only creating a humanitarian disaster in Belgium’s streets but also undermines the raison d’être of Belgian democracy. While the government’s actions have been condemned by human rights experts and courts alike, we argue it is arguably reflective of a worrying wider trend in the EU of the impotence of the law to secure human rights for migrants. Continue reading >>
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12 January 2024
Polnisches Pandämonium
Den Rechtsstaat wiederherstellen ist nichts für schwache Nerven. Continue reading >>12 January 2024
Polish Pandemonium
Restoring the rule of law is not for the faint of heart. Continue reading >>
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20 December 2023
Militant Rule of Law
To protect the rule of law based legal system against abusive use of the loopholes, imperfections, contradictions of the law, to avoid legal inertia legal positivist arguments are needed to convince and mobilize the legal mind. The same applies when the blind fortune of democracy provides the opportunity to erase the legally enthroned injustice and domination of illiberal regimes. When it comes to legal enactments that serve legal cheating the rule of law must respond to systemic abuse of the law, and that requires and justifies a rule of law based exceptionalism and a systemic remedy. Continue reading >>20 December 2023
Not Just Abortion
On 14 December 2023, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case M.L. v. Poland. The ECHR decided that the restrictions on abortion rights that Poland had violated Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Contrary to the hopes of the initiators of the case, this is not a European Roe v. Wade moment. The ECHR again refused to affirm that Article 8 can be interpreted as conferring a right to abortion. Nevertheless, the ECHR made significant findings regarding Polish rule of law violations. Continue reading >>
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17 December 2023