Abstract
The rule of law is a core value for states and supranational organisations alike. It started as a mere value mentioned in the preamble of the EU founding treaties and it has developed into a fully fledged legal norm, prerequisite for any enlargement process and conditionality for the disbursement of EU funds as the recent case law of the European Court of Justice clearly shows. The ECJ has made clear that ensuring respect for the rule of law within the EU legal order is not exclusively a judicial task and that it equally concerns EU institutions and member states. It remains to be seen whether the diffusion of the rule of law across the EU and member states will be followed by its thickening, i.e. whether the relevant ECJ case law will include other constitutive elements and foundational principles of the rule of law than judicial independence.
This paper further develops a previously published paper on a similar topic: “The Independence of Justice as Proxy for the Rule of Law in the EU—Case Study: Romania”, in Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie: Diritto, Istituzioni, Societa (NAD) n°1/2021, p.102-122.
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Notes
- 1.
Fuller (1964).
- 2.
- 3.
Bingham (2010).
- 4.
Rule of law checklist, Adopted by the Venice Commission at its 106th Plenary Session (Venice, 11–12 March 2016), CDL-AD (2016)007rev.
- 5.
Art. 6§1 TEU then provided that “the Union is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as the rule of law, principles which are common to the Member States”.
- 6.
Art. 2 TEU: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail”.
- 7.
Art. 21 TEU: “The Union’s action on the international scene shall be guided by the principles which have inspired its own creation, development and enlargement, and which it seeks to advance in the wider world: democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for human dignity, the principles of equality and solidarity, and respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law”.
- 8.
Detailing articles 6 and 49 TEU, which set out the conditions and principles imposed to any state aspiring to become an EU member, a number of standards known as ‘Copenhagen criteria’—because they have been established by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993—are the filter imposed to all enlargement processes since 1993.
- 9.
Platon (2019), p. 310.
- 10.
Case C-355/04 P, Segi and Others v. Council of the European Union.
- 11.
Case C-354/04 P, Gestoras Pro Amnistía and Others v. Council of the European Union.
- 12.
Case C-156/21, Hungary v European Parliament and Council of the European Union and Case C-157/21, Poland v European Parliament and Council of the European Union.
- 13.
Regulation 2020/2092 of the European Parliament and of the Council on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union Budget [2020] OJEU L 433 I/1.
- 14.
Lenaerts (2020).
- 15.
- 16.
Pech and Scheppele (2017).
- 17.
Case C-430/21 RS.
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Tanasescu, ES. (2023). Rule of Law as an Universal Value. In: Arnold, R., Cremades, J. (eds) Rule of Law and the Challenges Posed by the Pandemic. WLC 2021. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39804-9_6
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