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Vol. 36 (2016)
General Articles

Scrutiny over the Rule of Law in the European Union

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  • Petra Bárd
Petra Bárd
Eötvös Loránd University

Published 2016-12-31

Keywords

  • democracy,
  • European Union,
  • fundamental rights,
  • Hungary,
  • Poland,
  • rule of law
    • ...More
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Copyright (c) 2021 ILS PAS

Creative Commons License

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How to Cite

Scrutiny over the Rule of Law in the European Union. (2016). Polish Yearbook of International Law, 36, 187-208. https://doi.org/10.7420/pyil2016i

Abstract

The European Union is founded on a set of common principles of democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental rights, as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union. Whereas future Member States are vetted for their compliance with these values before they accede to the Union, no similar method exists to supervise respect of these foundational principles after accession. This gap needs to be filled, since history proved that EU Member State governments’ adherence to foundational EU values cannot be taken for granted. Against this background this article assesses the need and possibilities for the establishment of an EU Scoreboard on EU values; viable strategies and procedures to regularly monitor all Member States’ compliance with the rule of law on an equal and objective basis; and the nature of effective and dissuasive sanction mechanisms foreseen for rule of law violators.

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