Non-Majoritarian Instruments and Institutions: Dissensus and Democracy in Europe

This paper introduces the Special Section ‘Non-Majoritarian Instruments and Institutions: Dissensus and Democracy in Europe’, which examines the role of non-majoritarian institutions and instruments in contemporary European democracies amid growing dissensus and democratic decline. The Special Section, which constitutes a collective academic effort from a number of European legal scholars engaged in the EU-funded REDSPINEL Project, critically analyses the role of non-majoritarian instruments and institutions with respect to three challenges that shape contemporary democracies in Europe: economic inequality and discrimination, growing authoritarianism, and the pressing climate crisis.