As predicted, the EU is ready to dismantle its Digital Rulebook as it did with the Green Deal. It does so upon US administration’s demand and under Big Tech pressure. It’s a self-inflicted political decision putting the EU on a deregulatory turn on.ft.com/47vqFOl

The @ec.europa.eu's annual #ruleoflaw report "approach creates the impression of progress where, in fact, there is little or none." Spot-on and excellent study overall. Highly recommended. At this stage, I would argue that this tool has brought more problems than benefits.

BREAKING: Men who can’t even keep the government open write letter to a third man, whose high court regularly publishes anonymous orders, to complain about anonymous criticism from lower court judges.

1/3🧵 🚨 How the EU Parliament Selects its Experts? Recent developments within the European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) have raised serious questions about how expert contributions are managed and who influences them. 🔗 Read more: thegoodlobby.eu/how-the-eu-p...

How is the EU Parliament selecting experts to its public hearings and seminars? AFCO first disinvited me from a public hearing on EU electoral law, and then created the conditions for @profpech.bsky.social to step back seminar thegoodlobby.eu/how-the-eu-p...

The formula originally proposed by @europarl.europa.eu was much more effective, ao as the reporting panel would have been independent. But of course the EU Commission refuses that, as it is kept on a leash by the government leaders

Some of us predicted this outcome from the very launch of this EU rule of law reporting tool. See eg @rdanielkelemen.bsky.social writing in 2020 eulawlive.com/op-ed-you-ca...

All credit and solidarity with @profpech.bsky.social here. An important stand to make and one wholly consistent with the rule of law

💰Donald Trump and his allies have long praised Orbán’s Hungary even as it plunges in press freedom rankings. In 2022, Orbán told a conference of US conservatives, CPAC, that the path to power required “having their own media”. @theguardian.com

While the @consilium.europa.eu’s deriliction of duties continues, Orban has further strengthened his control of country’s media ecosystem ahead of next elections. Reminder: Orban’s Hungary now an electoral autocracy whose last free and fair elections took place in 2010…

‼️The EP's patience has run out. In a resolution to be adopted today, the LIBE Committee states that the EU Council (=Member States) itself is violating the rule of law by delaying further action against #Hungary under Article 7 procedure 🧵

A stark example of the spill-over effects of #illiberalism

Good to be making a point here, @profpech.bsky.social

Good on you taking a stand, @profpech.bsky.social

A senior Irish legal academic has withdrawn from a major EU symposium on the rule of law after organisers proposed to platform “fake judges and pseudo experts” linked to Poland’s rule of law crisis.

Authoritarian actors also often speak of the need for "judicial reforms" to disguise their agenda to dismantle judicial independence and create a party-state

Happy Birthday to the European Convention on Human Rights, which has helped to protect #OurRightsAndFreedoms for 75 years. Here are more than 200 examples, from across the continent👇 🔗 www.coe.int/ECHR There are thousands more. #ECHR #ECHR75 @coe.int @echr.coe.int

This is a template-worthy response for those asked to elevate crank views to the level or respectability in the name of diversity.

Conference participation question: Would you agree to attend a symposium on the rule of law in an expert capacity in a situation where the conference organisers have also sought to invite fake judges and pseudo experts in the name of “dialogue”, “political balance” and/or “diversity of views”?

Moving on from Kavanaugh Stops to Kavanaugh Shootings.

This surge in applications from the US comes at a time where the grant and job market in Europe is already *very* competitive. Unless Europe invests more in science and higher education this influx of talent will put a squeeze on an already fragile system. www.ft.com/content/cd80...

Trump’s university backlash drives US researchers towards Europe on.ft.com/4qKngmk

A really sobering story about how vulnerable UK universities are to intimidation to get them to abandon human rights research. Claims by China in this report of inadequate "fact checking" should always be accompanied by mention of their exclusions from Xinjiang: share.google/KY9SxTEk3rUM...

Here's a brilliant billboard campaign to put important messages before the National Guard troops being deployed to US cities! Another illustration of doing what we can, where we can. A model for us all! taskandpurpose.com/news/vet-gro...

Here's a smart piece explaining how the Supreme Court has got its values backwards, disguised in the way that the six-vote majority must be weighing the "balance of equities." Fictive presidential injury matters to SCOTUS far more than mass and very real pain. www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

“The researchers aim to show that the ‘inevitability’ of AI is just a marketing frame perpetrated by the industry and that pushback is a lot more possible than we often see.” Yes!

Reminder: Until now, @ec.europa.eu and @consilium.europa.eu have been busy looking the other way and indeed enabling Slovakia's autocratisation process by releasing EU funding www.politico.eu/article/eu-r...

💥SCOOP: According to my EU diplomatic sources, the Dutch government is weighing an Article 7 procedure against Slovakia over its constitutional changes and LGBTQ restrictions, following a Dutch parliamentary resolution. 🔗From @vsquare.bsky.social's 'Goulash' newsletter: vsquare.org/goulash-puti...

Important @verfassungsblog.de editorial: "That the 🇩🇪 branch of authoritarian populism now explicitly targets Verfassungsblog in its efforts to neutralize any threat to it is not cause for alarm. It is a confirmation. This is exactly what we must be prepared for" verfassungsblog.de/counting-on-...

A sensible autocrat never lets this be seen. Ever. And above all, *never* when about to immiserate one in nine of your population. It’s not just bad politics (and already picked up as such), it makes people have to see - and that’s not something you want them to do.

Trump regime denies visa to human rights lawyer and @houseoflords.parliament.uk member Helena Kennedy, a regular US visitor where she owns a home. She believes visa withheld because she signed a letter criticising Trump. The US Ambo should be called in by FCO www.newstatesman.com/politics/com...

White Christian nationalism has consumed the Supreme Court and crippled the Constitution it’s meant to uphold.

They should have never become so dependent on Microsoft in the first place. The #ICC will replace Microsoft’s Office software w the German OpenDesk amid concerns about a new wave of U.S. sanctions that could paralyze the court's day-to-day operations: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

💥European media giants have shamefully helped Viktor Orbán build his propaganda empire. After Deutsche Telekom and Axel Springer, Switzerland’s Ringier has now also sold its portfolio to Orbán’s proxies — who desperately need every outlet to secure victory in Hungary’s 2026 election. @reuters.com

According to @vsquare.bsky.social, the Netherlands is testing the member states to see whether they would support Article 7 proceedings against #Slovakia for systematic violations of the rule of law. This would require the support of one-third of the 27 countries. But according to the article… 2/1

⚖️🗺️Our friends at World Justice Project just released the 2025 edition of the Rule of Law Index. Unsurprisingly, they found an accelerating decline in the state of the rule of law globally. Let's take a look at Central & Eastern Europe and how this trend plays out there. 1/

What could have possibly happened in 2016 to result in such a steep decline? Who could possible know…

2nd edition of the report, #RuleofLaw beyond the EU Member States: Assessing the Union’s Performance 2025, is out democracyinstitute.ceu.edu/articles/rol... Report offers a concise assessment of the EU’s performance across several fields including justice system; anti-corruption; checks & balances

This approach to justice will sound very familiar to anyone aware of the history of the Klan.

I rest my case re the use of AI and legal drafting...

Speaking of which: "I do not believe that AI is a solution to time and resource pressures, not least because of the number of mistakes it makes, which mean that any work generated in this matter has to be thoroughly and carefully checked..." freemovement.org.uk/two-more-imm...

This is illegal. Commissioners "serve for four years each or until their successors are appointed and qualified." 40 USC 9101.

A whole new art of government with “ignorance is strength” as the animating principle.

Vote this year while you still can - and prepare for midterms mayhem. Trump is following the autocrat's playbook by preparing to rig the next election. Do what you can to support local election officials who will need all the help they can get. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Important piece by @alemanno.bsky.social on how some @eppgroup.bsky.social members are irresponsibly pursuing an Orban-style anti-NGO campaign at EU level and in doing so, may only succeed in weakening accountability & expert role in policy formation/enforcement at a time of rising authoritarianism

One institution that is holding the line far better than I expected is the federal judiciary,* especially the district courts.

The authoritarian nightmare. A regime with a massive security apparatus used for political purposes, completely unconstrained by the rule of law.

Donald Trump is clearly willing to do whatever it takes to stay in power, regardless of what the Constitution says. He “has always told us exactly who he is,” J. Michael Luttig argues. “We have just not wanted to believe him. But we must believe him now.”

21% have not been paying attention to Roberts Court’s corruption and proactive enabling of lawlessness

This is a real thing that a judge had to say to the Chief of US Customs and Border Protection.