Page 388 [388]
UPGRADING RULE OF LAW IN EUROPE
IN POPULIST TIMES
——o—
DIMITRY VLADIMIROVICH KOCHENOV"
Besides honoring Prof. Karoly Bard the task of this brief paper is to provide a
concise tour d’horizon of EU law development in the field of the Rule of Law over
the last years, which have significantly reinforced the powers ofthe supranational
institutions in this domain, and have previously never been considered part of
supranational competence / purview of regulation.
INTRODUCTION
I sat in Prof. Karoly Bard class exactly 20 years ago, earning LL.M. at CEU, which
I have just rejoined, following 20 unfaithful years with the Dutch, Italian and US
institutions (among many others). CEU LEGS has always stood on three pillars.
One of these pillars radiating authority, wisdom and respect is Prof. Bard. I am
thus immensely grateful for the generous invitation to contribute to this Liber
offered to one of the founding fathers of a great school, which shepherded so many
notable academics and practitioners. In honoring Prof. Bard I turn to the topic,
which has preoccupied me over the last 20 years and which brought me back to
CEU: the Rule of Law.
' CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest; CEU Legal Studies Department, Vienna; COMPAS
Visiting Academic (Hilary term 2021), School of Anthropology, University of Oxford. An
enlarged version of this chapter is forthcoming in the Polish Yearbook of International
Law (2021). This work has been prepared in the auspices of the EU’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation programme as part of RECONNECT project under Grant Agreement no.
770142.
+ 386 *