Democratic Self-Defense, Restoration, and the Rule of Law: Internal and External Challenges to Constitutional Integrity in the EU

Abstract

This panel examines the challenges that arise when efforts to defend or restore democracy and the rule of law in the European Union confront the limits of its constitutional and institutional framework. Across different contexts, ranging from domestic backsliding and institutional capture to the EU’s shifting geopolitical environment, democratic actors face pressures that test the resilience of the Union’s fundamental norms. Whether dealing with illiberal legacies that have reshaped courts, media, and oversight bodies or responding to security threats and external destabilization, the EU and its member states increasingly encounter situations in which fundamental norms are strained. At the center of the panel is the tension between protecting democracy and the rule of law while remaining faithful to constitutional commitments. The contributions explore the normative and legal foundations of democratic self-defense and restoration by asking when, if ever, actors may depart from ordinary democratic and rule-of-law requirements to dismantle captured structures. They also investigate what distinguishes actions that express constitutional fidelity and a duty to the governed from those that simply redistribute power or reproduce illiberal tactics. A further question concerns how to understand democratic and rule-of-law defense when threats emerge not only from within member states but also from the EU’s external environment, where geopolitical ambitions, strategic autonomy, and foreign-policy recalibrations threaten to erode the Union’s commitments. In addressing these issues, the panel develops approaches to the scope of permissible state and institutional action in times of constitutional fragility, the normative foundations of democratic self-defense, and the legal or political tools available within the EU’s multilevel order. It shows how the rule of law functions as a non-negotiable criterion for EU membership and accession, and how inconsistent enforcement can erode trust and weaken the Union’s foundations. It examines how the EU’s external action, including enlargement and foreign policy, must remain anchored in constitutional integrity if it is to contribute to rather than undermine the Union’s normative commitments. When geopolitical goals eclipse foundational norms, both the rule of law and democratic resilience are put at risk. By analyzing the interaction between democratic norms, legal limits, and evolving geopolitical pressures, the panel brings together the internal and external dimensions of the EU’s predicament. It rethinks how the EU and its member states can uphold, defend, and rebuild democracy and the rule of law, both within the EU and in its external engagement, without reproducing the pathologies they seek to overcome.

Title	Details
The EU’s Democratic Self-Defence: Normative Legitimation and Legal Limits	View Paper Details
Geopolitics and (Rule of) Law in the EU External Action	View Paper Details
Restorative Disobedience: Should Governments Restore Democracy through Disobedience?	View Paper Details
Upholding the Rule of Law as a Non‑Negotiable Condition of EU Membership	View Paper Details
Individual Militant Democracy in EU Institutions	View Paper Details