Seminar 'Sustainable Rule of Law' with Petra Bárd

As of 1 September 2022, Petra Bárd has been appointed as Professor of Sustainable Rule of Law at the Research Centre for State and Law (SteR). Bárd is the first SteR rotating chair holder. On Thursday 24 November the research programme ‘Founding principles & fundamental rights’ and SteR organised a seminar to introduce Petra Bárd to the research centre.

Bárd’s research on ‘sustainable rule of law’ explores how rule of law decline and backsliding in the member states of the European Union is a European matter. Her research explores issues at the intersection of the rule of law, fundamental rights, their European enforcement mechanism, and EU criminal cooperation. She argues that the EU possesses an arsenal of tools to address the violation of values in a dissuasive manner, and that it is of existential importance for the EU to make a harmonised and consequential use of these tools.

During the seminar, participants reflected on the question what lessons can be drawn from rule of law backsliding in several EU member states for the Dutch legal order and the quality of rule of law. The seminar started off with a keynote by Bárd, followed by responses from Toni van Gennip, Jasper Krommendijk, Chiel Kuypers and Sjarai Lestrade. These four SteR-researchers reflected on the situation in the Netherlands, each from their own research background. The seminar was concluded with a response to the four researchers by Bárd, and her answering questions from the audience.