UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

The Development of the Rule of Law in Poland in the Light of the European Understanding of the Rule of Law (Working Title)

For more than a decade, Hungary and, since 2015, Poland have been arguing with the European institutions about the meaning of the rule of law. This shows clearly: The consensus on the rule of law, long taken for granted and presupposed in Europe, is in parts brittle and illusory. Surely, there is a precisely definable core of the rule of law, which has meanwhile been extensively elaborated at the European level. The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, for example, defines five aspects in its “Rule of Law Checklist” of 2016. ^[1] However, in specific cases the implementation of the rule of law proves to be open to interpretation.

Against this background, the conflict over the rule of law in Poland can be described as follows: On the one hand, there are obvious issues contrary to the rule of law in which the limits of what can still be considered the rule of law have been overstepped in various respects. This is demonstrated by the extensive and steadily growing case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and recently also of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). On the other hand, however, there are also grey areas that elude a clear classification as being in accordance with or contrary to the rule of law. These borderline cases form the legal core of what is, otherwise, a highly political conflict.

The goal of this dissertation is first to explore the development of the rule of law in Poland from a legal-historical perspective up to the current understanding of the term and to identify differences in comparison to the understanding of the rule of law that has developed at the European level.

Based on these findings, concrete legislative changes in Poland since 2015 will be analysed. In this context, the judgments of the CJEU and the ECHR will be critically examined as well.

In a further step, the example of Poland will be used to illustrate which aspects of the rule of law are particularly contentious in Europe today. It will be discussed how divergent views can be reconciled, as well as which divergences can be permitted and endured under the common umbrella of a European rule of law.

[1] Rule of Law Checklist, Adopted by the Venice Commission at its 106th Plenary Session (Venice, 11-12 March 2016), CDL-AD (2016)007, https://www.venice.coe.int/images/SITE%20IMAGES/Publications/Rule_of_Law_Check_List.pdf.

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