After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communist regimes, many Central and East European countries successfully managed a ‘return to Europe’. For many observers, the ‘return to Europe’ signaled the ultimate victory of democracy and rule of law over the legacy of...

This paper takes a closer look at one of the EU’s foundational values, the rule of law, and relates it to the external dimension of the EU’s migration policy. It examines how the EU’s powers in migration management have been put to use in order to project EU migration policies beyond the...

The rule of law is a key precept in public law. But it often seems to be assumed that the concept should have little traction in the private law domain, where the State is nowhere to be seen. This paper contests that assumption. Defining the rule of law as being concerned with protecting the...

Strengthening of the rule of law and the accession to the European Union (EU) have been fraught with difficulties in the Western Balkans (WB) for over 20 years. In line with previous scholarship on "Europeanization," we understand this phenomenon as a politically driven process, i.e. as a way in...

This article discusses the implications of the rule of law crisis on a core area of EU law: competition law. It analyses the reforms of the judiciary in selected EU Member States and the reaction of EU institutions. The article shows that the reforms of the judiciary give rise to doubts...

The Eurozone and the European Union have recently been confronted with a number of existential threats. The sovereign debt crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have forced European decisionmakers to pass important reforms which have radically transformed the nature and scope of the Union's powers in...

The challenge of fighting corruption is strategic at a global and European level, and the inadequacy of the repressive and penal response alone has now been evidenced: corruption must not only be fought, but understood, and preventive administrative measures must be taken. Anti-corruption is not...