Conference 17–18 April: The Rule of Law in the EU: Crisis and Solutions

In the last decade, some EU Member States have introduced legal and political reforms which undermine the rule of law, human rights, and democracy. The EU has struggled to come to terms with these changes, which have serious implications for its functioning, its credibility and its identity. The EU institutions have sought to address these violations using various tools, but so far nothing seems to be working.

This conference brought together distinguished scholars, policy-makers and practitioners to discuss important questions concerning this situation and the future of the rule of law in the EU:

  • What lessons can we learn from the actions that EU institutions have already taken?

  • Does the EU need novel instruments to protect the rule of law?

  • Could the EU better support Member States in their transition back to rule of law compliance?

  • If so, how should this be done in a time of unease which threatens unity?

The conference sought to be a venue for the exchange of ideas, drawing lessons from past experiences, and charting a concrete path for future action.

Download the full conference programme.

Download a collection of essays written by the conference speakers.

The conference was co-organized by the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS); the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies (SNELS); the Centre for European Research (CERGU) and the School of Business, Economics, and Law, both at the University of Gothenburg.

Recordings of the keynote speeches and panels can be watched below.

 

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Location
  • 17–18 April. Stockholm, IVA Conference Center, Grev Turegatan 16
Speakers
  • Koen Lenaerts, President of the Court of Justice of the European Union
  • Didier Reynders, European Commission for Justice
  • Staffan I. Lindberg, Director of V-Dem, University of Gothenburg
  • Kim Lane Scheppele, Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Princeton University
  • Christian Danielsson, the Swedish State Secretary for EU Affairs
  • Dimitry Kochenov, Senior Research Fellow, Central European University
  • R. Daniel Kelemen, Professor of Political Science and Law, Rutgers University
  • Armin von Bogdandy, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
  • András Sajó, Central European University, and former judge at the European Court of Human Rights
  • Christophe Hillion, Professor of European Law, University of Oslo
  • Ian Manners, Professor of Political Science, University of Lund
  • Cecilia Malmström, Senior Research Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics and former European Commissioner for Trade
  • Luke Dimitrios Spieker, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute
  • Allan Rosas, Former Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union
  • Monica Claes, Professor of European and Comparative Constitutional Law, Maastricht University
  • Ana Bobić, Référendaire, Court of Justice of the European Union
  • Anna Wójcik, Assistant Professor, Institute of Legal Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences
  • Henriikka Leppo, Head of EU litigation unit at Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
  • Harry Flam, Senior Advisor in Economics, SIEPS
  • Iain Cameron, professor in public international law at Uppsala University

Recordings – Keynotes and panels