The European Union rests on the values of democracy, the rule of law and human rights (Article 2 TEU), but some Member States are not committing to these values. When it became clear that such failure concerns not only these countries but European society as a whole, European responses became a pressing issue. In 2012, we developed the "Reverse Solange" approach, in 2015 the concept of "systemic deficiencies" for fragile states. In 2020, with Michal Bobek, Adam Bodnar, and Pál Sonnevend as well as Matey Avbelj, Dario Castiglione, Pawel Filipek, Diego García-Sayán, Christophe Hillion, Sara Iglesias Sánchez, András Jakab, Maryhen Jiménez, David Kosař, Zdeněk Kühn, Angelika Nußberger, Jiří Přibáň, Kim Lane Scheppele, Werner Schroeder, Katarína Šipulová, Luke Dimitrios Spieker, Maciej Taborowski and Mirosław Wyrzykjowski, we took a step forward: from defending to restoring constitutional democracy. The research question was how any new government could do that in the context of European society.
The project addressed a novel situation: the democratic transitions in the 1990s (Transition 1.0, in our counting) were largely unrestricted by international or EU law. This changed in respect of Transition 2.0. EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights are key, with a dual role: they constrain democratic transitions, in particular through the principle of the rule of law, but they also facilitate the path back to full constitutional democracy. This calls for skillful lawyering as well as an important, but measured role of European institutions.
The various contributions explore the constitutional, legal and social framework, and best steps to take. Armin von Bogdandy and Luke Dimitrios Spieker show how the primacy of the EU law constraints sweeping legislative measures. At the same time, primacy leads to possible criminal liability of Polish judges who have become instruments of arbitrary repression. It can also help overcome Hungarian constitutional entrenchment of certain policies.
The book was published open access in September 2023. In October, the Polish opposition won the elections. Adam Bodnar became the Minister of Justice, and Maciej Taborowski was entrusted to participate in the reform of Polish public broadcasting.
Three dissertations emerged in the context of this project:
Matthias Schmidt: Verfassungsaufsicht in der Europäischen Union. Eine akteurszentrierte Analyse der Rechtsstaatlichkeitskrise der Europäischen Union. Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2021, 579 pages. He is now an EU official in the respective department of the Commission.
Luke Dimitrios Spieker, EU Values Before the Court of Justice. Foundations, Potential, Risks. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2023, Oxford Studies in European Law. The dissertation won the Otto Hahn Medal in 2023 and the Wilhelm Bender Prize in 2022, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Studienpreis. Luke Dimitrios Spieker is continuing an academic career.
Silvia Steininger, Dynamics of Resilience. Regional Human Rights Regimes in Times of Backlash. The book is under consideration with Cambridge University Press. Silvia Steininger then became a postdoctoral researcher at the Hertie School, Centre for Fundamental Rights, while continuing cooperation with the Institute on a small contract. The dissertation has won the Pünder Prize as the best „an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main formell abgeschlossene Qualifikationsarbeit“.
Armin von Bogdandy und Dimitri Spieker schreiben in der aktuellen MaxPlanckForschung zur Wiederherstellung des demokratischen Rechtsstaates in Polen.
Zum Text gehts hier entlang!
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The edited volume, "Transition 2.0. Re-establishing Constitutional Democracy in an EU-Member State", edited by Michal Bobek, Adam Bodnar, Armin von Bogdandy and Pál Sonnevend has been published with Nomos!
Read the volume open access in the Nomos e-library here.
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Dimitri Spieker's new book "EU Values Before the Court of Justice. Foundations, Potential, Risks" has been published with Oxford University Press. The book is based on his dissertation which he completed between 2018 and 2021 under the supervision of Armin von Bogdandy.
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Armin von Bogdandy and Dimitri Spieker were invited to speak at the Conference "The Rule of Law in the EU: Crisis and Solutions" organized by SIEPS in Stockholm on 17 and 18 April 2023. On a panel with András Sajó and Iain Cameron, Armin von Bogdandy explored how to restore the rule of law in EU Member States. Dimitri Spieker disucssed with Monica Claes and Allan Rosas how to go beyond the rule of law and also protect other EU values, in particular the value of democracy.
An anthology of essays by the conference speakers is available here.
The talks have been recorded: Armin von Bogdandy | Dimitri Spieker
[mehr]Two workshops in cooperation with Adam Bodnar, Pál Sonnevend and Michal Bobek in Heidelberg from 30 June to 1 July 2022 and from 16 to 17 March 2023
The workshop fasts forward to the next Hungarian and Polish elections. Assuming that a new government is elected and assuming that this new government wants to restore its legal system in line with the European rule of law, we ask: “what comes next”? The program is organized in four parts. The first part aims at a better understanding of what went wrong in the first place. The second part will discuss to facilitate democratic transitions in substance, i.e. how to deal will the finality of judicial decisions, appointments to independent institutions or laws that can only be amended by a super-majority. The third part will discuss processes and institutions that might support these transition processes, such as as the Venice Commission or the European courts.
Workshop in cooperation with the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study) in Berlin from 10 to 11 January 2019
Conference in cooperation with the University of Warsaw in Warsaw from 14 to 15 September 2017
Conference in cooperation with the University of Warsaw in Heidelberg from 28 to 30 June 2017
