Mobility Phase: Hungarian Academy of Sciences - Institute for Legal Studies, Budapest | Schweizerisches Bundesgericht, Lausanne | Centre de droit comparé, européen et international - Université de Lausanne
Pluralism as a Key to the Interplay of Democracy and the Rule of Law: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives in View of Current Rule of Law Crises
Photo: Joanna Scheffel
Benedict Vischer received an MA in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Basel, an MLaw from the University of St. Gallen and an LL.M. from Yale Law School. His doctoral dissertation in legal philosophy was completed at Humboldt University Berlin. For many years, he worked as a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg). He also worked at the Centre Marc Bloch (Berlin), the University of St. Gallen and the University of Basel. He was a member of the Cluster of Excellence Normative Orders (Frankfurt) and an Affiliated Researcher at the Law & Society Institute Berlin. Visiting research and teaching appointments brought him to PUC and FGV in Rio de Janeiro and to Yale Law School. As a re:constitution Fellow, he stayed at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Budapest), the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland and the University of Lausanne. In the coming academic year, he will be an Associated Researcher at the Institute for European Global Studies in Basel and the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin.
Pluralism as a Key to the Interplay of Democracy and the Rule of Law: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives in View of Current Rule of Law Crises
The interdependence of democracy and the rule of law is one of a fragile nature. According to contemporary liberal conceptions, the two ideals imply each other. Yet they also tend to constrict and suppress each other: Recurrently, democracy is used to challenge judicial independence, while the rule of law ideal motivates constrictions of democratic procedures. The current rule of law crises in Central Eastern Europe showcase this danger. These crises can only partially be explained in procedural terms. The case of Switzerland shows that strong democratic accountability of the judiciary can be compatible with robust judicial independence. Deeper conditions need to be considered to explain the problem. The project explores the role of pluralism in cultivating a healthy interplay of democracy and the rule of law. In Switzerland, the democratic embedding of the judiciary seems to strengthen the judicial regard for the plurality of societal perspectives, while in countries such as Hungary, the judiciary seems to get subjected to a dubiously secured electoral majority. The project examines the constitutional factor of pluralism on a theoretical and a comparative level. It also considers doctrinal implications with regard to the values of the European Union enshrined in Art. 2 TEU.
