The paper discusses the nexus between the EU pre-accession conditionality and membership obligations to guarantee respect for the rule of law as a founding value of the EU, common to the member states. It examines how the EU’s rule of law promotion in the accession process converges with and potentially inspires the progressive EU articulation of standards. By focusing on the judicial dimension of the rule of law, it is argued that while a specific diversity is conceivable in the manner in which the rule of law is observed, and especially in how judicial independence is achieved at the national level, there is a functional rationale for the EU to circumscribe the heterogeneity of national judicial systems, and for elaborating the common rule of law standards in the EU. Read more here.
Source: EUIDEA