The talk will last for 30 minutes and be followed by comments by Vice President of the European Court of Justice Lars Bay Larsen.
Abstract:
We are currently in Europe experiencing some paradoxical parallel phenomena related to the role and future of liberal constitutionalism. On the one hand we have a rule of law crisis with EU member states who over the past 15 years have started to fundamentally question the liberal basis of the Union but also sat out to deliberately destroy their own democracies, challenging art. 2. On the other hand we also have an increasing number of constitutional scholars who have started to question the established dogma of constitutional democracy as it materialized after the 2WW and on which also the EU builds. What these scholars say is that constitutionalism has become an ‘ideology’ and that we should (re)turn to politics instead of law when solving difficult disputes in society. A return to majoritarian instead of constitutional democracy. The scholars thus both critique the increasing power and influence of national constitutional courts as well as supranational courts when it comes to overriding national political decisions. In this way these scholars indirectly legitimize the backsliding illiberal leaders that the EU is currently struggling to constrain. Concurrently with these two trends democratic backsliding has put increasing pressure on European Court of Justice to – in its case law – carve out a more and more precise substantive definition of judicial independence, democracy and the rule of law ( as listed in art. 2). The talk will discuss what consequences these opposing tendencies may have for the future for the Rule of Law in Europe, for the Courts ability to put ‘flesh on the bones’ of art. 2 and for the future of European democracy.
About Marlene Wind:
Marlene Wind is Professor and Director of the Centre of European Politics at the University of Copenhagen. She is also Professor and co-founder of iCourts at the Faculty of law, a Centre of Excellence for international Courts, hosting around 45 scholars from different disciplines and countries. Dr. Wind did her doctorate at the EUI in Florence where she worked with Joseph Weiler, Francis Snyder and Phillippe Schmitter. For 15 years she was board member of the EUI where she also chaired the board and sat on the strategic executive committee. Prof. Wind has in all her career worked on the interplay between law and politics and published extensively on these issues i.e. in books like ‘Sovereignty and European integration – towards a Post-Hobbesian Order (Palgrave); with Joseph Weiler in ‘European Constitutionalism beyond the state (CUP), with Miguel Maduro in ‘The Transformation of Europe – 25 years on’ (CUP); and in ‘International Court and domestic politics’ (CUP). Most recently she has published a book on democratic backsliding and the future of democracy in Europe ‘The Tribalization of Europe – a defense of our liberal values’ (Polity Press) which has been translated into 5 languages so far. To this comes a large number journal articles in law as well as political science journals.
She is currently working on a new book called ‘Democracy without Courts in Scandinavia: How anti-constitutionalism captured the Nordics and why the European rule of law crisis may end it’.
Languages: English
This is a free conference. Registration is mandatory.
The seminar will be held in person.
Cold lunches are provided to registered participants.
