The Rule of Law as a Common Individual-Centred Principle and the European Union’s and Member States’ Joint Obligation to Uphold It

Abstract The current debate on the rule of law in the EU is focused on Member States’ rule of law observance within their national systems and the EU’s possibilities to foster it. Connected to this, the need for the effectiveness of EU law is stressed and the rule of law is mingled with EU law primacy. That focus’s conceptual underpinnings have considerable short-comings. In particular, they create fallacies with regard to the joint exercise of public power by the EU and Member States and fail to put individuals’ protection from public power’s misuse at the heart of the rule of law. In response to that, this Article (re)introduces rule of law’s understanding as a common individual-centred principle. It lays the conceptual and legal foundations and illustrates the joint obligation it creates with regard to collisions of EU and national law and to blurred lines of responsibility within cooperative administration. In contrast to an effectiveness-driven, functionalist and self-referential understanding, a common individual-centred principle of the rule of law functions as an individual-centred counterbalance to the joint exercise of public power within the EU. Without claiming a conclusive conceptualisation of the rule of law, these neglected facets are brought to the fore.