Schmidt Highlights Transatlantic Perspectives on the Future of Liberal Democracy
On December 11, 2025, the Horizon Europe RED-SPINEL project convened its final conference, bringing together scholars and practitioners to present the project’s central findings on dissensus over liberal democracy. The event highlighted the project’s extensive scholarly output, including multiple books and academic articles, and featured discussions of policy-relevant insights emerging from the research.
A standout session of the conference was the panel, The Future of Liberal Democracy in Europe: Political and Legal Perspectives, featuring Professor Vivien Ann Schmidt alongside Judge Iulia Motoc from the International Criminal Court, with contributions from Amandine Crespy and Paul Dermine from Free University of Brussels (ULB). The panel was moderated by Professor Ramona Coman (ULB). Schmidt offered a transatlantic perspective on democratic contestation, examining how political developments in Europe are viewed from the United States—and how shifts in U.S. democracy resonate across Europe. She emphasized the importance of ideas, discourse, and institutional context in shaping democratic resilience.
The panel also explored the critical role of courts and judicial dialogue in defending democracy, fundamental rights, and the rule of law, underscoring Schmidt’s broader contribution to understanding how political and legal institutions interact in times of democratic strain.
Vivien Ann Schmidt is a Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Professor Emerita of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, and Professor Emerita of Political Science, as well as the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Europe, all at Boston University where she taught from 1998 to 2023. An authority on European politics and society, the European Union, and France, she has written several books including Europe’s Crisis of Legitimacy: Governing by Rules and Ruling by Numbers in the Eurozone (2020) which received the Best Book Award of the American Political Science Association’s Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics section. Her upcoming publication by Oxford University Press, The Power of Ideas and Discourse in Political Analysis: A Discursive Institutionalist Perspective, will be available in April 2026. To learn more about her work and accomplishments, visit her faculty profile.