Cluster 4 | Rule of Law as a Renewed Commitment: Comparative Trajectories of Undoing and Redoing

How can damaged rule-of-law systems be rebuilt?

Scope. Sessions focus on how democratic and rule-of-law regression can be undone: the politics and practice of restoration and renewal, and the transitional phases after a change of government. Recovery is not a single-country story, so we welcome sessions that bring together cases at different stages of regression, resistance, transition and restoration – Poland and Hungary as important cases, alongside other European and non-European experiences. How are rule-of-law and democratic infrastructure being rebuilt in practice? How can constitutional and institutional arrangements be strengthened, adapted or renegotiated? How do societies move from resistance and crisis management to durable democratic governance? What responsibilities should the EU and other supranational actors have in supporting, shaping or constraining these processes?

Rationale. The rule-of-law field has become highly sophisticated at diagnosing regression; it is much less settled on what comes next. Restoration is not simply the reverse of decline. This cluster asks what a genuine, durable commitment to the rule of law and democracy requires: what we already know, what we still need to learn, and which lessons travel between countries.