Event Highlights: Constitutional Crises in Central and Eastern Europe – A Legal Analysis
By Aislinn O’Brien, Candidate for Bachelors of the Arts in International Relations and Political Science
On February 20th, Dominika Harasimiuk, PhD of Lazarski University and Vlad Perju of Boston College gave a lively lecture, moderated by BU Law Prof. Daniela Caruso. Professor Harasimiuk engaged the audience with a comparison of constitutional crises to a play. Harasimiuk painted that the relevant politicians and political parties are like the main actors in a play that drive the story forward, relevant institutions are the supporting cast, and that the different stages in the progression of the constitutional crises are like the various acts in a play. She then walks through the acts of the constitutional crises that have occured in Eastern Europe, focusing on the politicization of the judicial system in Poland, which had been loaded with judges that would favor the President by the president rather than the other candidates selected by the court. Then, Harasimiuk moved to a discussion of EU identity, which she believes is a more normative rather than collective identity, and she alluded to disagreements between national and EU-wide norms or laws as a force which may undermine the creation of an EU identity.
Professor Perju followed Professor Harasimiuk in a similarly live manner, comparing the constitutional crises to a ‘battle for the rule of law’. Perju also discussed the challenges that have come with the widening and deepening of the EU, specifically focused on the politicization of the Bulgarian judicial system that has occurred as the EU has had its focus off of Eastern Europe. Perju also talked briefly about the rise of fascism in the EU and even more broadly across the world. In his portion of the lecture, he brought attention to the many unknowns that still exist about the modern rise of fascism: “Do we know why this is happening?”, “Is this distinctly new?”, etc. Lastly, Perju turned to the challenges of the EU in forming a European identity. He elaborated on concerns that exist on this front within the EU, specifically concerns over the ‘sui generis’ nature of EU governance. Additionally, he posits that debates over the existence of an EU identity are yet another force that may contribute to the unraveling or undermining of such an identity. All in all, we were happy to hear Profs. Harasimiuk and Perju give their perspectives, thankful for Prof. Caruso moderating, and thank everyone for a very interesting lecture!
