Is the rule of law too vague a notion?
In December, the European Commission triggered the so-called Article 7(1) TEU procedure against Poland on the grounds that “there is now a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law”. If a...
View ArticleClimate Change and Freedom of Assembly: Some Human Rights Questions for COP24
A little over a month ago, the Polish parliament passed a law on organizational issues related to the Conference of Parties (COP24) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which will...
View ArticleThe Court is dead, long live the courts? On judicial review in Poland in 2017...
What started in 2015 as “court packing”, transformed in 2016 into an all-out attack on the judicial review and checks and balances, and ended with full-blown constitutional coup d’état and...
View ArticleCJEU Opens the Door for the Commission to Reconsider Charges against Poland
With the Associação Sindical dos Juízes Portugueses judgment, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) lately reacted to the current crisis of rule of law in certain EU Member States. On the...
View ArticleDie Rechtsstaatlichkeitskrise vor Gericht: der Anfang vom Ende gegenseitigen...
Die Rechtsstaatlichkeitskrise in Polen rückt zunehmend in den Fokus der Gerichte. Das gilt auch für den EuGH und die Gerichte anderer, auf den ersten Blick nicht direkt betroffener EU-Mitgliedstaaten....
View ArticleThe Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide
The text below, dubbed the “Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide”, was published in social media in January 2017 in a series of improvised, spontaneous tweets, which reached 3 million views within one...
View ArticleThe Consensus Fights Back: European First Principles Against the Rule of Law...
“Die Gemeinschaft ist Rechtsgemeinschaft und wird nur durch die Autorität des Rechts zusammengehalten.” Everling, Zur Begründung der Urteile des Gerichtshofs der Europäischen Gemeinschaften, (1994) 29...
View ArticleThe Consensus Fights Back: European First Principles Against the Rule of Law...
A Crumbling European Consensus ? The politics of resentment call the original narrative built around the rule of law into question by proposing a competing one, that of fundamental disagreements over...
View ArticleJudicial Independence as a Precondition for Mutual Trust
As discussed on this blog by Professor Mattias Wendel, in March 2018, in a European Arrest Warrant case concerning a Polish citizen (Celmer) the Irish High Court was confronted with claims that the...
View ArticleBad Response to a Tragic Choice: the Case of Polish Council of the Judiciary
A few days ago, the courageous and intelligent Chief Justice of the Polish Supreme Court, Professor Małgorzata Gersdorf, announced that, after some agonizing due to important legal and moral dilemmas...
View ArticleChoosing between two Evils: the Polish Ombudsman’s Dilemma
Nothing illustrates the rule of law crisis in Poland as well as the practice of the functioning of the Constitutional Tribunal. During more than thirty years of operation, the Tribunal has established...
View ArticleA Constitutional Referendum to Delegitimize the Constitution
The Polish President Andrzej Duda has just announced that on 10 and 11 November a referendum will be held in Poland on the need to amend the Constitution, in which he will put to the Polish people...
View Article10 Facts on Poland for the Consideration of the European Court of Justice
Dear Judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union, soon you are to decide whether, despite massive legislative changes, the Polish judiciary is still independent and therefore able to ensure a...
View ArticleThe Białowieża case. A Tragedy in Six Acts
Setting the stage: Constitutional Plots, Characters and Stakes In the judgment of 18th of April 2018 of the logging case (C – 441/17) the Court of Justice („the Court”) ruled (unsurprisingly) that by...
View ArticleThere is No Such Thing As a Particular „Center and Eastern European...
Recently, after a new landslide electoral victory by Viktor Orban, who again managed to win a constitutional majority in the Hungarian parliament, a fresh perspective on constitutional developments in...
View Article"A Bad Workman always Blames his Tools": an Interview with LAURENT PECH
Anna Wójcik: Many critics of the judicial reform pushed by Poland’s ruling party fear that the lack of further decisive activity on the part of the European Commission will lead to the establishment of...
View ArticleHic Rhodus, hic salta: The ECJ Hearing of the Landmark "Celmer" Case
The highly anticipated hearing in the Celmer case (C-216/18 PPU, Minister for Justice and Equality v LM) took place on 1 June 2018 before the Grand Chamber of the ECJ. For any readers of this blog that...
View ArticleOpen Letter to Vice-President Frans Timmermans
European Commission 8 June, 2018 Dear Vice-President Timmermans, We write as legal and constitutional scholars who are particularly concerned with the European Union, democracy, and the rule of law....
View ArticleDusting off the Old Precedent – Why the Commission Must Stick to the Art. 7...
"History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes." Mark Twain Here we go again. The reports are resurfacing that the Commission...
View ArticleThe AG Opinion in the Celmer Case: Why Lack of Judicial Independence Should...
On 28 June 2018, Advocate General Evgeni Tanchev delivered his Opinion in the Case C‑216/18 PPU Minister for Justice and Equality v LM on the surrender of a crime suspect to Poland. The issue is...
View Article