Fall-backs of Rule of Law Systems in Romania, Hungary and Poland as phenomena of EU Disintegration

The proposed paper analyses fall-backs of Rule of Law Systems in EU States as Phenomena of EU Disintegration. In this context, we conceptualize European (dis)integration as bidirectional, measurable with the same indicators and multi-dimensional. The Rule of Law Systems are seen as sub-systems of the institutional systems and as interdependent with other sub-systems (especially the societal system). In a first step, we analyze the establishment of a „multi-level rule of law system“ in the European Union that encompasses the supranational political system of the EU and several interdependent national levels of governance as a development in the direction of integration. We show how the principle of the rule of law in the EU has been set up by primary law and rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) based on different traditions of the EU states. We argue that the doctrines of primacy and direct applicability, both developed through ECJ case law, are a manifestation of the principle of legal certainty and focal to the multi-level character of the EU ́s principle of the rule of law. In a second step, we analyze comparatively the current violations of the EU principle of the rule of law in Romania, Hungary and Poland. While violations go on in Poland and Hungary, they stopped in Romania. Using the concept of EU (dis-)integration explained in the first step, we ask why the developments have been so different, taking into account not only the reactions of the EU (proceedings under Art. 7 TEU, rulings of the ECJ, behavior of the European Parliament) but also the economic and social (EU skepticism, governing parties, public discourse) developments in the three states concerned.