Defining and Operationalising Defiant Non-Compliance in the EU: The Rule of Law Case

Existing literature often attributes non-compliance to either a lack of resources or implementation costs. However, the rule of law crises in Hungary and Poland present a different picture: a deliberate strategy aimed at not complying with EU enforcement actions. This article differentiates this mod...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Closa Montero, Carlos, Hernández, Gisela
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/375661
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/375661
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Defiance
Hungary
Non-compliance
Poland
Rule of law
International politics
Descripción
Sumario:Existing literature often attributes non-compliance to either a lack of resources or implementation costs. However, the rule of law crises in Hungary and Poland present a different picture: a deliberate strategy aimed at not complying with EU enforcement actions. This article differentiates this model from previous ones and terms it ‘defiant non-compliance’, which is characterised by four types of domestic actions (ignoring the Commission's recommendations and warnings; not complying with Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) rulings; questioning the role of the CJEU as the sole final interpreter of EU law; and impeding national courts' right to raise preliminary questions). A defiant rhetoric questioning the authority and legitimacy of the enforcing authorities accompanies these actions. The article distils defiant non-compliance by systematising empirical evidence on these governments' reactions to EU enforcement. This model of non-compliance severely threatens the foundations of the EU, as it erodes the notion of a community of law-abiding member states' governments.