What has the influence of the Venice Commission’s legal advice been on the quality of democratic governance and legal change in Central and Eastern Europe? Constitutional law scholars argue the crucial role of the Commission’s advice in fostering democratic reforms and legal change in the region with thorough legal advice - it being a ‘guardian of democracy’ and ‘transnational legal order’-maker that ensures the quality of democratic governance in the region (Khan et al., 2023; Miklasová and Nußberger, 2023). Surprisingly and unlike with the reception of ECtHR case law, there is a lack of empirical scholarship examining cross-country variations in the reception of Venice Commission decision-making or tracing the socio-legal impacts of the politics of legal advice-giving. This project fills the lacuna and offers empirical analysis framework for operationalizing and measuring the politics of legal advice-giving in Eastern Europe in 2010s-2020s. The project is a purview of a wider research agenda about the varieties of legal governance of democracies in the region.
Wed 11 Mar 2026 | 14:00–15:00
Unpacking the Politics of Constitutional Law Advice-Giving: The Venice Commission and Legal Change in Central and Eastern Europe
Fellow Talk by Andrii Nekoliak (re:constitution Fellow 2025/26) | Chair: Marija Ristić (Amnesty International) | Discussant: Jakub Jaraczewski (Democracy Reporting International)
Andrii Nekoliak was Postdoctoral MEMOCRACY Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Institute in the Hague — University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and the first Konrad Adenauer Junior Fellow at the University of Cologne (Germany). He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Tartu (Estonia). Among other contributions, Andrii has published on Ukraine-related topics in edited volumes with Cambridge UP, Palgrave McMillan, and Hart-Bloomsbury. He also has an article on the politics of Ukraine’s Constitutional Court in Review of Central and East European Law (Brill). His most recent research on how Ukraine punishes historical memory offences is set to appear in East European Politics and Societies. Apart from research, Andrii regularly contributes to Verfassungsblog.
The Fellow Talk will be chaired by Marija Ristić and the discussant will be Jakub Jaraczewski (Democracy Reporting International).
