The Systemic Implications of the Supranational Legal Order for the Practice of the Rule of Law

Abstract

The article presents the main rule of law guarantees and the critique of the rule of law as it is applied in the European Union. Analysis is supplemented with the results of the European Parliament election survey which was conducted as a part of RECONNECT project. Despite the fact that rule of law topics reach the European media headlines on a regular basis, the rule of law was not perceived as the most important one by the respondents. Meanwhile Treaty-based mechanisms aimed at protecting EU fundamental values, such as Article 7 TEU and the infringement procedure, reflect the dual legal as well as political nature of the rule of law. The article analyses how the EU constitutional structure affects the practices of the rule of law—both at the supranational and domestic level—and offers some key recommendations on how to tackle deficiencies in the field of the rule of law.