The European Union is based on the values of democracy, rule of law, and human rights protection (inter alia). Although compliance with the founding values is presumed in its law, the Union is now confronted with persistent disregard of these values in two Member States. If it ceases to be a union of Rule-of-Law-abiding democracies, the EU is unthinkable. Purely political mechanisms to safeguard the Rule of Law, like those in Article 7 TEU, do not work. Worse still, their existence has disguised the fact that the violations of the values of Article 2 TEU are also violations of EU law. The legal mechanisms tried thus far, however, do not work either. The fundamental jurisprudence on judicial independence and irremovability under Article 19(1) TEU is a good start, but it has been unable to change the situation on the ground. Despite ten years of EU attempts at reining in Rule of Law violations and even as backsliding Member States have lost cases at the Court of Justice, illiberal regimes inside the EU have become more consolidated. More creative work is needed to find ways to enforce the values of Article 2 TEU more effectively. Taking this insight, we propose to turn the EU into a militant democracy, able to defend its basic principles, by using the traditional tools for the enforcement of EU law in a novel manner. This brief course will focus on the history of values-articulation in the EU, as well as their enforcement, approaching the subject matter in a critical vein. Buckle up of a couple of interesting discoveries about the Union and the nature of its law.
- Instructor: Dimitry Kochenov