On 2 November 2022, the School of Law of UCLan Cyprus launched the CRoLEV NET. This event, organised within the framework of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence CRoLEV successfully gathered various stakeholders and experts in the field of the rule of law. The event took place in hybrid format, with several participants on campus and other online via MS Teams. Student, advanced students, academics, legal professionals, and other civil society stakeholders participated in the event.

Professor Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou, Head of the School of Law of UCLan Cyprus and CRoLEV Director delivered the Welcome Address. In her address, Prof. Laulhé Shaelou introduced CRoLEV, explaining how the Centre is structured, and identifying the various broad objectives it seeks to realise. Following the opening remarks, Dr Andreas Marcou, Lecturer of EU Law and Theory at UCLan Cyprus and CRoLEV Chief Researcher outlined the various specific research objectives that CRoLEV aims to achieve, including a brief summary of the various methodologies that are to be employed. Dr Katerina Kalaitzaki, Lecturer in EU Business Law and CRoLEV Senior Researcher then provided a comprehensive analysis of the public outreach plan that CRoLEV follows, including a presentation of the project’s website, available here. Following these remarks from the CRoLEV team, three guests delivered short presentations on a series of engaging topics touching on various aspects of the rule of law.

Dr Aleksandra Gliszczynska-Grabias, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, joining CRoLEV NET via MS Teams, delivered a talk on the ‘Challenges of the rule of law crisis in Poland in the context of respecting human rights protection standards’. Dr Gliszczynska-Grabias’s speech highlighted a series of activities that the Polish government has undertaken, and which severely undermine the rule of law and other European values. Discussing government efforts to limit media freedom, attacks against refugees, actions against women rights and the rights of sexual minority, she painted an alarming picture of the deep failures of the rule of law in Poland.

Next, participants watched a video prepared by Dr Yulia Razmetaeva, Head of the Center for Law, Ethics and Digital Technologies at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Ukraine) and Visiting researcher at Uppsala University (Sweden). In that video, Dr Razmetaeva, who is also the Project Leader of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence ‘European Fundamental Values in Digital Era’, delivered a presentation entitled ‘AI in the courts: what is wrong with the rule of law?’. In that video, Dr Razmetaeva touched on a variety of issue touching on the rule of law related to the enhanced use of artificial intelligence in judicial proceedings.

The final presentation was delivered by Dr Balázs Fekete who discussed ‘The CITIZENS-LAW project: studying the social foundations of Rule of Law’. Dr Feketem, who is a research team member of the project CITIZENS-LAW, provided an overview of that project. One key objective of the project, he explained, would be to study the rule of law beyond legal institutions, turning instead to societal attitudes. Within the CITIZENS-LAW project emphasis will be placed on the attitudes of citizens of three different countries (the Netherlands, Denmark, and Hungary) with regards to the rule of law.

CRoLEV NET successfully brought together various experts and stakeholders on the rule of law and raised a series of innovative questions regarding the role of the rule of law in our everyday lives, the various considerations associated with the use of technology in the court rooms, and the various threats to the rule of law and other European values across Europe and the world.

The video of the full event will be made publicly available on the CRoLEV website in due course. Please visit https://crolev.eu/