From systems to citizens: the rule of law as a SSH research key topics in the EU Daniela Piana University of Bologna Session: Democracy, justice and stability

The starting point SSH legacy: focusing on systems (political systems, judicial systems, economic systems) SSH dominant methodology: quantitative analysis + macro trends Policy guidelines: targeting rules and structures which shape the systems

The added value we gained so far Comparative approaches Analysis of macro and long term changes Baseline for inter – governmental and inter – institutional cooperation

What’s missing? The gap between structures and functions The rules that shape the policy field do not determine the policy implementation processes The policy timeframe creates an unavoidable gap between the lives of citizens and the systems where they live

What’s the SSH agenda for? Provide a new insight about the empirical dimensions that a macro scale and systemic approach does not take into account Provide sound and reliable methodologies to go beyond the anedoctic treatment of the micro processes and create analytical framework that can support a citizens – oriented approach to the institutional analysis

Is this a deny of the strength of the quantitative methods? No! This is the claim for a mix methodological approach SSH should be powerful and insightful enough to go “micro” and keep an eye on the macro level How?

Rule of law as an empirical object Two faces targeted by the mainstream Courts as institutional devise to enforce fundamental rights Courts systems as an institutional devise to hold the legislative and the executive branches accountable and answerable to the law

What is missing? The demand of justice The pre legal and pre judicial dimension of the rule of law The expectations citizens address to the judicial and the legal institutions

Regaining the missing dimension Toward a three dimensions notion of rule of law Demand of rights and justice The court system and the checks and balances The rights enforcement mechanisms

An agenda for the SSH in the European Communities and groups focused analyses of the demand of justice Empirical analysis of the way judicial institutions actually work (beyond the formal rules) Empirical analysis of the conditions created for the right enforcement be accessible to all, reliable and efficient