Abstract
This chapter presents an analytical grid to shed light on ongoing rule of law debates in the EU today. To do so, it traces the origins of the rule of law, showing how the concept has marked the evolution of different forms of political organisation, from the Athenian polis in Ancient Greece and the Roman republics to the medieval cities and, from state formation to the establishment of polities beyond the state like the EU. It shows that the definition and institutionalisation of the rule of law have always given rise to consensus, contestation, and dissensus. Section 2.1 retraces the main traditions in which the concept is rooted. Section 2.2 looks at the diverse enshrinement of the rule of law in the constitutions of the EU member states. Section 2.3 focuses on the widespread principled consensus over the rule of law that has emerged in the 1990s at the global level and considers the increased dissensus which has developed in recent years. Section 2.4 elaborates the analytical grid by identifying three main attitudes vis-à-vis the rule of law: principled consensus, principled dissensus, and practice-based contestation, in order to explore dimensions of the rule of law—legality, control, consent, and substance—that may give rise to conflict in the EU polity.
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Notes
- 1.
Then, in Germany in the 1930s, the primacy of law was abused and failed to take into account the potential arbitrary use of parliamentary power.
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Coman, R. (2022). The Core Dimensions of the Rule of Law: From Consensus to Dissensus. In: The Politics of the Rule of Law in the EU Polity. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97367-4_2
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