The Rule of Law Under Threat

Edited by Robert Böttner, Assistant Professor of Public Law, Faculty for Law, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Erfurt and the late Hermann-Josef Blanke, formerly Professor of Public Law, Public International Law and European Integration, Faculty for Law, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Erfurt, Germany

Contents
Preface ix
1 The Rule of Law as a Fundamental Value of the Council
of Europe, the European Union and in the Constitutional
Traditions Common on the Member States 1
Juha Raitio
2 Measuring the Rule of Law: an Empirical Approach 13
Jacek Lewkowicz, Rafał Woźniak and Przemysław Litwiniuk
3 Post-accession experience regarding the rule of law 31
Herbert Küpper
4 The Fall of the Rule of Law and Democracy in Hungary
and the Complicity of the EU 51
Gábor Halmai
5 Consequences of the Rule of Law Debates for the
Accession Process of the States of the Western Balkan 73
Pavel Usvatov and Mahir Muharemovic
6 Are Judges Politicians in Robes? Comparative Aspects of
the Recruitment and Election of Judges 94
Piotr Mikuli, Natalie Fox and Radosław Puchta
7 Rule of Law (Crisis) and the Principle of Mutual Trust 125
Konstantina-Antigoni Poulou
8 Questioning the Primacy of Union Law by National
Constitutional Courts 146
Udo Bux
9 Political Strategies to Overcome the Rule of Law Crisis
Taking into Account National Political Discourses – The
Case of East Central European EU Member States 165
Astrid Lorenz, Jan Němec, Dietmar Müller, Madeleine
Hartmann and Dorottya V’g
10 The Rule of Law in the European Union and the Toolbox
to Defend it: Article 7 TEU, Rule of Law Report and
Dialogue, Budgetary Conditionality 186
Jonathan Bauerschmidt
11 Article 7 TEU as ‘Nuclear Option’? An Analysis of its
Potential and its Shortcomings 208
Robert Böttner and Nic Schröder
12 Financial Sanctions as a Remedy to Enforce the Rule of
Law in Poland and Hungary 228
Malte Symann