The Values of the European Union as Legal Rules: Lessons from the Union’s Reaction to Constitutional Backsliding

The thesis investigated the paths for transforming the founding values of the European Union enshrined in Article 2 TEU into legal obligations binding on the Member States. If first examines the legal framework for EU values to understand the legal nature and significance of Article 2 TEU. Then, the core research is grounded on a theoretical framework for the operationalization of EU values composed of two strands: concretization (namely, the conversion of values into clear principles and standards) and enforcement. 

The thesis is built on the practice related to the value of the rule of law, which, at present, is the most developed, as a case study for the operationalization of the full set of values under Article 2 TEU. It reconstructed the different techniques for operationalizing the rule of law, assessing their pros and cons. The analysis relies on three main categories of EU legal sources: the enlargement practice, the practice of decision-making institutions and the case law of the Court of Justice. 

Then, the thesis discussed to what extent the different techniques can be exported to the other EU values, testing their use for operationalizing each value under Article 2 TEU in light of its peculiarities.