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DIMITRY VLADIMIROVICH KOCHENOV spirit of the Treaties. It can be hypothesized that such developments as the ones we witnessed over the last two years, could occur much earlier in the history of EU’s constitutionalism. Yet, there was probably no overwhelming need for their articulation before now. Indeed, as one remembers from school physics lessons, where there is action — there is reaction. The presumption of compliance by all the Member States’ authorities with the rule of law — criticized amply by one of the present authors’? — has actually worked well until the moment when rule of law and democratic backsliding became the main headache of the powers that be in Brussels and other capitals. Indeed, should the backsliding continue, the very soul of the Union would be emptied of any content: if it is not anymore a club of rule of law-abiding democracies, the added value of the whole integration project comes naturally questioned.’ The issue is thus not helping the Polish and the Hungarian people to remain free. The very rationale of the Union as such is at issue.” Tomasz Koncewicz is absolutely right: ‘undoubtedly, while this emerging rule-of-law caselaw adds constitutional layers to the community of law, its reformative potential and significance go clearly beyond the courtroom’. ARTICULATING THE SUBSTANCE OF THE EU RULE OF LAW: DISCOVERING THE IMPORTANCE OF JUDICIAL IRREMOVABILITY AND INDEPENDENCE Appealing to the independence of the judiciary, which is one of the least questioned crucial elements of the rule of law, in order to accomplish the transition from restating presumptions to ensuring compliance is a move of towering importance, especially considered in its simplicity. As explained by President Lenaerts: ‘It follows that national courts or tribunals, within the meaning of Article 267 TFEU, are, first and foremost, called upon to protect effectively the rights that EU law Baden, Nomos, 1995, 629-640; Constantinos N. Kakouris, La Mission de la Cour de Justice des Communautés Européennes et l’ethos du Juge, Revue des affaires européennes 4 (1994), 35-41. 5 Dimitry Kochenov, The EU and the Rule of Law -Naivete or a Grand Design?, in Maurice Adams — Anne Meuwese - Ernst Hirsch Ballin (eds.), Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law: Bridging Idealism and Realism, Cambridge, CUP, 2017, 419-445. Tomasz T. Koncewicz, Understanding the Politics of Resentment: Of the Principles, Institutions, Counter-Strategies, Normative Change, and the Habits of the Heart, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 26 (2019), 501-630. Carlos Closa, Reinforcing of EU Monitoring of the Rule of Law’, in Carlos Closa — Dimitry Kochenov (eds.), Reinforcing Rule of Law Oversight in the European Union, Cambridge, CUP, 2016, 15-35. Tomasz T. Koncewicz, The Supranational Rule of Law as First Principle of the European Public Space — On the Journey in Ever Closer Union among the Peoples of Europe in Flux, Palestra 5 (2020), 167-216. + 390 +