Ramona Coman 
The Politics of the Rule of Law in the EU Polity [PDF ebook] 
Actors, Tools and Challenges

This book analyses the challenges facing the European Union through the frame of the rule of law. It shows how over the last decades the increased dissensus and contestation of the rule of law has given rise to heightened tensions between national and EU institutions, leading to the establishment of new soft and hard policy tools to safeguard it at the supranational level. The book proposes a comprehensive and multifaceted analysis of the current state of debates by exploring how EU institutional actors seek to uphold the Union’s values. It shows that European integration in core state powers is the outcome of the clash between liberal and anti-liberal ideas, between dissensus and contestation over how collective problems should be solved, in a community of voices featuring assent and dissent, all of which give democracy its substance. Beyond the analysis of the emerging EU’s rule of law policy, the book will help readersto better understand the EU’s fragilities and resilience and the potential challenges for the future of EU integration.

Table of Content

1. The Gradual Establishment of an EU Rule of Law Policy in Times of Dissensus.- 2. The Core Dimensions of the Rule of Law: From Consensus to Dissensus.- 3. From the Constitutionalisation of Values to the Question of Enforcement.- 4. The Commission’s Rule of Law Soft Tools: Towards the Establishment of a Monitoring Regime?.- 5. The European Parliament: How Coalition Formation and Internal Group Dynamics Shape EU’s Rule of Law Policy?.- 6. The Rule of Law Debate in the Council: Weak Consensus and Impossible Deliberation and Persuasion in Times of Dissensus and Contestation.- 7. The European Council’s Role in Day-to-Day Decision Making: Increasing the EU’s Authority Through a General Regime of Conditionality (Regulation 2020/2092)?.- 8. When Civil Society Engages with the EU’s Rule of Law Policy-Making: Towards a More Substantive Understanding?.- 9. Ten Years on, What Then Is the Outcome? Consensus, Dissensus and Contestation over the Rule of Law.

About the author

Ramona Coman is Professor of Political Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, where she is also President of the Institute for European Studies. She is the co-editor of books including
Governance and Politics in the Post-Crisis European Union (2019)
, Political Science in Motion (2016)
, The State of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: A Comparative Perspective (2016)
, and Europeanization and European Integration: From Incremental to Structural Change (2014)
.