How to protect European Values in the Polish Constitutional Crisis

Does the Polish development concern us — the European citizens and the European institutions we have set up? There is a functional and a normative argument to state that it does. The normative argument is that the European Union organizes a community of states that profess allegiance to a set of fundamental values—among others, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. The functional reason is that the European legal space presupposes mutual trust. European law operates on the presumption that all institutions are law-abiding. Otherwise, the legal edifice crumbles

Beobachtungen zu einem transformatorischen Ansatz demokratischer Verfassungsstaatlichkeit

Das Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina (ICCAL) bezeichnet einen regionalen Ansatz transformatorischer Verfassungsstaatlichkeit. Gespeist aus der konkreten Erfahrung von unhaltbaren Zuständen systemischer Art zielt er auf den Wandel politischer und sozialer Realitäten durch eine konzertierte Stärkung von Menschenrechten, Demokratie und Rechtstaatlichkeit. Im Mittelpunkt stehen gemeinsame Probleme der lateinamerikanischen Länder wie die Exklusion breiter Bevölkerungskreise sowie die oft nur schwache rechtliche Normativität. Statt auf funktionale Integration setzt das ICCAL vor allem auf einen rechtebasierten, überstaatlich abgesicherten und regional radizierten Konstitutionalismus, so dass die Vertreter des ICCAL Staatsrecht, Völkerrecht und Rechtsvergleichung engst verbinden. Von besonderer Bedeutung ist die Öffnung der Verfassungen zahlreicher lateinamerikanischer Staaten gegenüber dem Völkerrecht sowie das interamerikanische System des Menschenrechtsschutzes, das den normativen Kern des ICCAL darstellt. Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert die Kernelemente dieses Ansatzes und erschließt ihre spezifisch lateinamerikanische Gestalt

Founding Principles of EU Law

The article provides the groundwork for the constitutional law approach to EU legal scholarship. It stresses the special role of the basic principles of the EU legal order, explaining their dimensions, foundations and their functions. First of all, legal principles play a special role in ordering the legal material into a meaningful whole, a function the author entitles doctrinal constructivism. Furthermore, they can supply arguments for the creative application of the law and can at the same time help to maintain and further legal infrastructure. The author also explains their legal and integrative aspects and their constitutional characteristics and illustrates their significance for establishing unity of EU law in light of heterogeneous primary law

Fundamentals on Defending European Values

In 2007, the Treaty makers ennobled the former fundamental principles of the Treaty on European Union as European values. Respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law and the protection of human rights have henceforth transcended the sphere of ‘merely’ legal matters. They have been posited as widely shared and deeply rooted normative orientations and thus the true foundations of the common European house. This step was probably meant to tap a new source of legitimacy and stability

Temeljna načela prava Unije

Prispevek utemeljuje ustavnopravni pristop k proučevanju prava Evropske unije. Ob tem daje avtor posebni pomen temeljnim načelom ustavnega reda EU in pojasnjuje njihove razsežnosti, temelje ter naloge. Pravna načela imajo pomembno vlogo pri urejanju pravnega gradiva v smiselno celoto. Takšno urejanje avtor poimenuje kot pravnodogmatični konstruktivizem. Pri uporabi prava služijo načela kot argumentacijske figure. Z njihovo pomočjo se ohranja in razvija pravna podstat. Razprava pojasni tudi povezovalne vidike načel ter njihov ustavnopravni značaj, ponazori njihov posebni pomen za utemeljitev enotnosti prava Unije z ozirom na njegovo razdrobljenost ter delitev njegovih temeljev na dve pogodbi.This article provides the groundwork for the constitutional law approach to EU legal scholarship. The author stresses the special role of the basic principles of the EU legal order, explaining their dimensions, foundations and their functions. First of all, legal principles play a special role in ordering the legal material into a meaningful whole, a function the author entitles doctrinal constructivism. Furthermore, they can supply arguments for the creative application of the law and can at the same time help to maintain and further legal infrastructure. The author also explains their legal and integrative aspects and their constitutional characteristics and illustrates their significance for establishing unity of EU law in light of heterogeneous primary law. The article has previously been published in German (Europarecht (2009/6, 749-768) and English (European Law Journal 16 (2010), 95-111). Its Slovenian translation, published here in Revus, was made by Maja Smrkolj

A New Page in Protecting European Constitutional Values: How to best use the new EU Rule of Law Framework vis-a-vis Poland

The application of the EU Commission’s Rule of Law Framework in the current Polish case is a step in the right direction. It seems a good instance to develop the Framework as an EU mechanism to protect European constitutional values in a European legal space which is rife with constitutional crises, but short of instruments to address them. Its pertinence appears even more clearly in comparison to the Council’s (in)activity under its own rule-of-law mechanism, hastily put forward after the Commission’s Framework. The activation of the Framework has shown its potential to mobilize European public opinion and orient public discourses to the current condition of EU value