Abstract: Based on a talk at the University of Graz in November 2021, this article treats the current state and some consequences of the ongoing dismantling of rule-of-law standards driven by legislative "reforms" in some EU Member States. It connects to the Conditionality Regulation and highlights the attempts of EU constitutional law to avoid what has been called "backsliding" of EU Member States or - with the term used by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Repubblika1) - "regression" in relation to rule of law standards. The ECJ operationalises art. 19 TEU as an objective right for protecting the judicial independence of Member States‘ courts. As is submitted here, the principle of non-regression is a new meta-principle to put an end to Member States‘ backsliding in their rule of law standards. It basically also applies to other fundamental values of the European Union. The new principle has to be seen together with the so-called context method applied by the ECJ in proceedings for preliminary ruling.
Polexit? Hungarexit? Quo vadis EU? Reflexions on the latest solutions provided by EU constitutional law in the face of a persistent rule of law misery
Oliver Mader*)*)Dr. Oliver Mader, M.A. (KCL) is Practice Leader Governance at DAI (EU development cooperation). This paper is based on a talk by the author at the University of Graz on 17 November 2021, upon invitation by the Institute for European Law of the University of Graz and by the Austrian Hub of the ELI - European Law Institute. Hyperlinks last checked on 25 February 2022. For further references and reading on EU rule of law, value homogeneity and value protection, conditionality regime and non-regression principle cf. O. Mader, Enforcement of EU Values as a Political Endeavour: Constitutional Pluralism and Value Homogeneity in Times of Persistent Challenges to the Rule of Law, Vol. 11 The Hague Journal of the Rule of Law 2019, 133; O. Mader, Rechtstaatlichkeit und Haushalt: Der Stand des Werteschutzes in der EU nach dem Streit über die Rechtsstaatsverordnung, EuZW 2021, 133; O. Mader, Wege aus der Rechtsstaatsmisere: der neue EU-Verfassungsgrundsatz des Rückschrittsverbots und seine Bedeutung für die Wertedurchsetzung (Teil 1), EuZW 2021, 917 and O. Mader, Wege aus der Rechtsstaatsmisere: der neue EU-Verfassungsgrundsatz des Rückschrittsverbots und seine Bedeutung für die Wertedurchsetzung (Teil 2), EuZW 2021, 974.ALJ 2022, 47 Heft 1 v. 8.2.2022
