hosted by Professor Justin O. Frosini


What is more paradoxically democratic than a people exercising their vote against the harbingers of the rule of law and democracy? What happens when the will of the people and the rule of law are at odds? Some commentators note that the presence of illiberal political movements in the public arena of many Western countries demonstrates that their democracy is so inclusive and alive that it comprehends and countenances even undemocratic forces and political agendas. But what if, on the contrary, these were the signs of the deconsolidation of democracy instead of its good health? What if democratically elected regimes were to ignore constitutional principles representing the rule of law and the limits of their power?

With contributions from judges and scholars from different backgrounds and nationalities this book explores the framework in which this tension currently takes place in several Western countries by focusing on four key themes:
- The Rule of Law: presenting a historical and theoretical reconstruction of the evolution of the Rule of Law;
- The People: dealing with a set of problems around the notion of 'people' and the forces claiming to represent their voice;
- Democracy and its enemies: tackling a variety of phenomena impacting on the traditional democratic balance of powers and institutional order;
- Elected and Non-Elected: focusing on the juxtaposition between judges (and, more generally, non-representative bodies) and the people's representation.

BENEDETTA BARBISAN
Benedetta Barbisan is Associate Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Macerata. Previously, she has held positions at Boston College Law School, Harvard Law School, Universidad de Oviedo, Yale Law School, King's College London, Queen's University Belfast, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. She currently is Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C and professeur invité at the Université Catholique de Lille. She has authored Nascita di un mito (il Mulino, 2008), Corte costituzionale e Corti europee. Fra diversità nazionali e visione comune (with Giuliano Amato, il Mulino, 2016) and Patriottismo costituzionale. Il caso italiano in prospettiva comparata (ESI, 2022). With Giuliano Amato and Cesare Pinelli, she has edited the book Rule of Law vs Majoritarian Democracy (Hart, 2021).

CESARE PINELLI
Cesare Pinelli is Full Professor of Constitutional Law and of Public Law at the University of Rome Sapienza, Director of the review Diritto pubblico and Member of the "Commission for Democracy through Law" (Venice Commission) (2017- ). He is the author, inter alia, of the following writings: The populist challenge to constitutional democracies, in European Constitutional Law Review, 2011; Financial Markets and Societal Constitutionalism, Cardiff, 30 June 2017, in Journal of Law and Society, Vol 45 Issue S1, July 2018; The formation of a costitutional tradition in continental Europe since World War 2', European Public Law, 22, n. 2, 2016; Respect for the Common Values to the Member States and Protection of the EU financial interests, Luiss, 26 May 2022, in Europeanrights.eu, 28.5.2022.

SUSANNA MANCINI
Susanna Mancini is Adjunct Professor of International Law, SAIS Europe, and Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law, University of Bologna. She is interested in the intersection of law and culture, and particularly in law and religion, gender and the law, reproductive rights, multiculturalism, the multilevel protection of fundamental rights, federalism and secession. She is a Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Constitutional Law. Manchini was Senior Fellow at the Italian Academy of Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University (January-April 2018). Mancini has served as visiting professor at Columbia Law School (2020), Hebrew University (Jerusalem) (2018), Fordham School of Law (NYC) (2015), the University of Toulouse, the Central European University (recurrent since 2009), the Interdisciplinary Center (Israel) (2019); also a Floersheimer distinguished fellow and visiting professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School (2008-2016) and a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute (2009); an invited speaker at several universities including Yale, Oxford, Columbia, Toronto, Montreal, University College London, and Queen Mary University of London. She holds a PhD, European University Institute (1995) and a JD from the Bologna School of Law (1991).