Rule of Law Clinic at CEU DI

CEU Democracy Institute Rule of Law Clinic aims to give the rule of law in Europe a voice in front of the highest courts. Next to bringing third party interventions, it aims to play a pivotal role in providing direct assistance to practitioners and scholars. The Clinic will offer public support to rule of law professionals and facilitate fellowships to enhance expertise on pressing rule of law issues.

Panel debate at Koźmiński University (Warsaw)

On 29 October 2024 a panel debate about the Rule of Law Clinic's latest report was held at Koźmiński University in Warsaw....

Rule of Law Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief in an EU-Belarusian border crisis case

Rule of Law Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of H.M.M. and Others v. Latvia (application no. 42165/21)....

Launch of the report “Rule of Law beyond the EU Member States”

On 28 October 2024 a new report of the Rule of Law Clinic was launched at the European Policy Center in Brussels....

Team

Barbara Grabowska-Moroz

Director of the Clinic

Dimitry Kochenov

Founder of Rule of Law Clinic, Lead Researcher at Rule of Law WG

Joelle Grogan

Clinical Co-Director, Senior Research Fellow

Laurent Pech

Clinical Co-Director, Senior Research Fellow

Omer Shatz

Research Affiliate

András Sajó

Senior Research Fellow

Mariam Begadze

Research Assistant

Olena Stetsenko

Administrator

Lughaidh Kerin

Research Fellow

Aleksandra Ancite-Jepifánova

Senior Research Fellow

About the project

Established with a generous EUR 1M grant from Stiftung Mercator, CEU Democracy Institute Rule of Law Clinic aims to give the rule of law in Europe a voice in front of the highest courts. Next to bringing third party interventions, it aims to play a pivotal role in providing direct assistance to practitioners and scholars. The Clinic will offer public support to rule of law professionals and facilitate fellowships to enhance expertise on pressing rule of law issues. The Clinic also implements programs to enhance awareness among the public on the core values of the European Union and its Member States – including democracy, rule of law, and the protection of fundamental rights.

Over the next three years until July 2026 the Clinic will support practical rule of law work across Europe in a strictly non-partisan and a-political fashion, engaging with the issues of rule of law backsliding, undermining of checks and balances, and abuse of power. Its activities will also support judges, scholars and practitioners under attack for serving the interests of the rule of law, and help further develop the Good Lobby Profs – a pro-bono initiative, which aims to hold power in Europe accountable.

Rule of Law Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief in an EU-Belarusian border crisis case

Rule of Law Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of H.M.M. and Others v. Latvia (application no. 42165/21).

Rule of Law beyond the EU Member States: Assessing the Union’s Performance

A new independent report led by the Rule of Law Clinic at the CEU Democracy Institute (Budapest), seeks to examine the EU's own adherence to rule of law requirements.

Third-party intervention in Danileţ v Romania

On 16 October 2024, the CEU DI Rule of Law Clinic submitted the third-party intervention in Danileţ v Romania case. The case concerned a disciplinary sanction imposed on a judge by Romania’s National Judicial and Legal Service Commission for posting two messages on his Facebook account.

Rule of Law Clinic submitted amicus curiae briefs in EU-Belarusian border crisis case

Rule of Law Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of C.O.C.G. and Others v. Lithuania (application no. 17764/22).

Our work

Events

Panel debate at Koźmiński University (Warsaw)

On 29 October 2024 a panel debate about the Rule of Law Clinic’s latest report was held at Koźmiński University in Warsaw.

Launch of the report “Rule of Law beyond the EU Member States”

On 28 October 2024 a new report of the Rule of Law Clinic was launched at the European Policy Center in Brussels.

Omer Shatz Testifies Before Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe

Omer Shatz, Senior Research Fellow at the CEU DI Rule of Law Clinic and the legal director of front-LEX, an NGO challenging EU migration policies via strategic litigation, has testified before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

The Rule of Law beyond the EU Member States: Assessing the Union’s Performance

Policy Dialogue, co-organised with the Rule of Law Clinic at the CEU Democracy Institute, will present the main findings of the ‘Shadow Rule of Law Report’ and discuss the major rule of law challenges facing the EU with EU decisionmakers, civil society and academia.

Publications

2024

A. Sajó, Militant Rule of Law, CEU DI Working Paper 2024/21

B. Grabowska-Moroz, The Pegasus scandal in Poland – between old problems with state surveillance and the current rule of law crisis, About:intel 16 January 2024

B. Grabowska-Moroz, Żurek v Poland – when judges become rule of law actors. Challenges and achievements of judicial mobilisation in Poland. ERA Forum (2024)

D. Kochenov, ‘Supremacy Rule of Law Undermines the European Union’, Marek Safjan (ed), Revival of the Rule of Law (Intersentia, 2024, forthcoming).

D. Kochenov, ‘The Smoke of Constitutionalism on the Altar of Supremacy: Dialogical Rule of Law in the Hands of the European Court of Justice’, in J Wouters et al (eds), Enforcing the Rule of Law in the European Union (Oxford University Press, 2024, forthcoming)

E. Basheska, D. Kochenov, Migration and Citizenship in Europe – Does ‘Illiberalism’ Matter? Eurowhiteness Solidarity from the EU and Hungary to the UK, COMPAS Working Paper No, 167-2024

J. Grogan, ‘The Impact of COVID-19’ in T Daly, and D Samaratne (eds), Democratic Consolidation and Constitutional Endurance in Asia and Africa: Comparing Uneven Pathways (OUP 2024)

M. Klamert and D. Kochenov, ‘Article 2 TEU’, in Manuel Kellerbauer, Marcus Klamert and Jonathan Tomkin (eds), The Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights – A Commentary (2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024, forthcoming).

Navigating the Jurisdiction and Landmark Rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU: A Guide to Protecting the Rule of Law in the European Courts Amid Backsliding, CEELI 2024

P. Bárd and D. Kochenov, ‘What Article 7 is Not: The European Arrest Warrant and the de Facto Presumption of Guilt – Protecting EU Budget Better than Human Rights?’, in Adam Łazowski and Valsamis Mitsilegas (eds) The Arrest Warrant at Twenty (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2024, in press)

S. Ganty and D. Kochenov, ‘How the EU Death Machine Works’, Verfassungsblog 2024

2023

D. Kochenov, ‘Our Death Machine vs Citizenship, Human Rights’, 60 Revista IDEES 2023

D. Kochenov, ‘Restoring Dialogical Rule of Law in the EU: Janus in the Mirror’, 25 Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 2023, pp. 20 (in press).

D. Kochenov, ‘EU Rule of Law Today: Limiting, Excusing, or Abusing Power?’, in Anna Södersten and Edwin Hercock (eds), The Rule of Law in the EU: Crisis and Solutions (SIEPS, Stockholm 2023), pp. 18–23

L. Pech, ‘The European Union’s rule of law crisis: From rule of law to rule of lawlessness in Europe’ (2023) 70 Irish Jurist 10-28

L. Pech, ‘The Future of the Rule of Law in the EU’, VerfBlog, 14 December 2023

L. Pech, ‘The Future of the Rule of Law in the EU’, VerfBlog, 14 December 2023. Republished by Irish Legal News in January 2024

L. Pech, The Case for Activating the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation in Respect of Poland, Study commissioned by The Greens/EFA in the European Parliament, October 2023, 141p (co-authored with A. Wojcik and P. Wachowiec)

M. Tushnet and D. Kochenov (eds), Research Handbook on the Politics of Constitutional Law (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2023), pp. 790.

M. Tushnet and D. Kochenov, ‘Introduction. The Politics of Constitutional Law’, in Mark Tushnet and Dimitry Kochenov (eds), Research Handbook on the Politics of Constitutional Law (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2023)

M. Tushnet, D, Kochenov (eds.): Research Handbook on the Politics of Constitutional Law, Elgar 2023

O. Schatz, I. Cohen, S. Easy, Who guards the guards? The legal responsibility of Frontex in the Aegean Sea under EU law, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Thessaloniki Office 2023

S. Ganty, A. Ancite-Jepifánova, D. Kochenov, EU Lawlessness Law at the EU-Belarusian Border: Torture and Dehumanisation Excused by ‘Instrumentalisation’ (December 10, 2023). MOBILE Working Paper Series, no. 18, 2023 (University of Copenhagen), Available at SSRN

S. Ganty, A. Jolkina and D. Kochenov, ‘EU Lawlessness Law at the EU-Belarusian Border: Torture and Dehumanisation Excused by “Instrumentalisation”‘ (MOBILE Working Paper 13, 2023 (University of Copenhagen), pp. 1-32.

S. Ganty, D. Kochenov and S. Roy, ‘Unlawful Nationality-Based Bans from the Schengen Zone: Poland, Finland, and the Baltic States against Russian Citizens and EU Law’, 48 Yale International Law Journal Online, pp.1-34.

S. Ganty, D. Kochenov, Hijacking Human Rights to Enable Punishment by Association: Valiullina, Džibuti and Outlawing Minority Schooling in Latvia, Strasbourg Observer 23 November 2023