20 episodes

Independent courts, judges who will withstand political pressure and rule against the will of the government if the law demands it. It’s called the rule of law, and as long as you have it, you rarely notice it. If you don’t have it, you’ll know what you miss – but then it’s too late. We need to talk about the rule of law because in a growing number of EU member states, the rule of law is already severely damaged - and we will all feel the consequences. We need to talk about the rule of law as Europeans, among Europeans. This is what we, Verfassungsblog and Deutscher Anwaltsverein, want to do with this podcast. Twelve weeks, twelve episodes: Every week we invite a number of high-profile political and legal actors and experts to discuss the most urgent aspects of this topic. If you want to be part of this debate, please feel warmly encouraged, do send us your question, use the hashtag #lawrules or send us a speech memo on our Instagram account (@verfassungsblog).

We need to talk about the Rule of Law Verfassungsblog / DAV

    • Government

Independent courts, judges who will withstand political pressure and rule against the will of the government if the law demands it. It’s called the rule of law, and as long as you have it, you rarely notice it. If you don’t have it, you’ll know what you miss – but then it’s too late. We need to talk about the rule of law because in a growing number of EU member states, the rule of law is already severely damaged - and we will all feel the consequences. We need to talk about the rule of law as Europeans, among Europeans. This is what we, Verfassungsblog and Deutscher Anwaltsverein, want to do with this podcast. Twelve weeks, twelve episodes: Every week we invite a number of high-profile political and legal actors and experts to discuss the most urgent aspects of this topic. If you want to be part of this debate, please feel warmly encouraged, do send us your question, use the hashtag #lawrules or send us a speech memo on our Instagram account (@verfassungsblog).

    #DefendingTheDefenders - Episode 1: Poland

    #DefendingTheDefenders - Episode 1: Poland

    We Need to Talk About the Rule of Law is back for a second season that focuses on the impact of rule of law erosions on attorneys. In the first episode, we talk to Mikołaj Pietrzak. He is an attorney and the Dean of the Warsaw Bar Association, which is the oldest professional legal association in Poland and the administrative association of attorneys in Warsaw. That places him right in the middle of the rule of law crackdown that has been going on in Poland under the ruling PiS party since 2015. In our conversation, he shows us how a such a crackdown looks like in a country of the European Union – including some surprising insights into the immense range of consequences it had throughout the legal profession. Mr Pietrzak's analysis of the dire challenges attorneys face in Poland – exemplified by disciplinary proceedings against them as well as the horrifying situation on the border to Belarus – leads him to a message to European citizens: We need to protect the rule of law every day, through participation in civic society as well as democratic choices in elections.

    • 32 min
    #1 We need to talk about Constitutional Courts

    #1 We need to talk about Constitutional Courts

    Constitutional courts are under attack in many countries in Europe and beyond. Why? And why now? What can be done to protect them, and what are the most important conditions for constitutional courts to function?
    These are the questions we discuss in the first episode of our new podcast with three guests, two of them former constitutional judges with first-hand experience on these matters, and one a scholar who has written an outstanding book on the German Bundesverfassungsgericht.

    STANISLAW BIERNAT was the Vice President of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal while the government launched its takeover campaign against the court.

    PEDRO CRUZ VILLALON, former Advocate General at the European Court of Justice, was a Judge at and President of the Spanish Constitutional Court, which has suffered greatly in recent years in the Catalan secession drama.

    MICHAELA HAILBRONNER is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Gießen and an expert on the probably most influential constitutional court in Europe, the German Bundesverfassungsgericht.

    • 36 min
    #2 We need to talk about Judicial Nominations

    #2 We need to talk about Judicial Nominations

    It's easy to agree that judicial independence is important – but who gets to be a part of the judiciary, who gets promoted to which court and who enters the highest ranks is a decision that has to be taken by someone, and a lot depends on who that someone is.
    Controlling judicial nominations is one of the key elements in all authoritarian takeover strategies which have been implemented in recent years in Poland, in Hungary and elsewhere. This is what we will discuss with our three distinguished guests today:

    FILIPPO DONATI is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Florence, a lay member of the Concilio Superiore della Magistratura of Italy and since June of this year the president of the European Network of Councils of the Judiciary.

    JOANNA HETNAROWICZ-SIKORA is a judge at the district court of Slupsk in northern Poland and a member of the board of the independent judges’ association IUSTITIA.

    CHRISTIANE SCHMALTZ is a judge at the highest German civil and criminal court, the Bundesgerichtshof.
     

    • 46 min
    #3 We need to talk about Disciplinary Proceedings

    #3 We need to talk about Disciplinary Proceedings

    Judges, as all other people, sometimes misbehave. In that case, a procedure needs to be in place to examine if a sanction is required and, if so, to impose it. 
    Disciplinary procedures, however, can be misused by an authoritarian government as blunt yet efficient tool to force the independent judiciary into submission. The most striking case in point is, once again: Poland. Judge Igor Tuleya is facing removal from office and worse for having crossed the government once too often in his discharge of his judicial duties. And he is not the only one.
    Our distinguished guests for this week's episode are:

    NINA BETETTO, a judge of the Slovenian Supreme Court and the President of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE), 

    ADAM BODNAR, the outgoing Human Rights Commissioner of the Republik of Poland, and

    SUSANA DE LA SIERRA, a professor of administrative law at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo, Spain. 
     

    • 47 min
    #4 We need to talk about Procedural Law

    #4 We need to talk about Procedural Law

    Courts don't just exist. They are shaped by organisational and procedural rules which are enacted by the legislative – and can be abused accordingly.
    Court packing schemes and tampering with the retirement age of judges are just two examples of such abuse. On the other hand, sometimes the judiciary is indeed in need of reform, e.g. when they no longer manage to deliver judgments in a timely fashion. How do you distinguish "good" judicial reforms from "bad" ones? Is there such a thing as a "good" court packing scheme? 
    This is what we discuss with these distinguished guests in this week's episode:

    Christoph Möllers, a Professor of Public Law and Jurisprudence at Humboldt University of Berlin and a former judge at the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg, 

    MARIAROSARIA GUGLIELMI, the Vice President of the judges association Magistrats Européens pour la Démocratie et les Libertés, and

    ANDRÁS BAKA, for 17 years a judge at the European Court of Human Rights and then President of the Hungarian Supreme Court until he was forced out of office by the FIDESZ governing majority in Hungary.

    • 52 min
    #5 We need to talk about Prosecutors

    #5 We need to talk about Prosecutors

    Public prosecutors decide whether a criminal suspect is investigated. Or not. They decide whether a person is indicted and whether there will be a trial. Or not.
    If you control them, you can make your opponents' life miserable and let your friends run free. On the other hand: If prosecutors don't have to answer to politics at all, who will hold them accountable?
    This is what we discuss with these distinguished guests in this week's episode:

    JOSÉ MANUEL SANTOS PAIS is a Prosecutor at the Portuguese Constitutional Court and head of the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors.

    RADOSVETA VASSILIEVA is a legal scholar from Bulgaria currently living in the UK,
     

    THOMAS GROSS is a Professor for Public Law, European Law and Comparative Law at the University of Osnabrück.
     

    • 36 min

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