This article puts in the centre the increasingly notable discrepancy between constitutional democracy as a form and its actual practice in Central Europe, with a particular focus on Slovenia. It explores the following question: what is it in the Central European societies, such as Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, that inhibits the formal infrastructure of constitutional democracy to deliver its intended effects in practice? In pursuit of the answers, the article will be broken down into three parts. First, we are going to explain the concept of constitutional democracy as it has developed both in the Slovenian constitutional practice and in theory. Having passed the conceptual threshold, the next part will outline the main elements of the sociology of constitutional democracy, as applied to the Slovenian case. Of course, due to the space constraints the discussion will be necessarily schematic and will be used to respond to the main research question of this article, which boils to the identification of the main social factors that hinder the actual emergence of constitutional democracy in Slovenia. Finally, the article will close down with some normative proposals for improving the state of constitutional democracy in Central Europe in the not so distant future.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1024725617
Central and Eastern European countries have in last decades faced several obstacles to establish full-functioning liberal constitutional democracies and the rule of law. This article studies the impact of the European Court of Human Rights on the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe by examining reasons for high number of judgements finding violations and difficulties in executing judgements in several of Central and Eastern Europe states. It analyses the contribution of the European Court of Human Rights in Central and Eastern Europe and asks whether its judgements have provided fundamental standards in the key dimensions of the rule of law. It argues that the European Court of Human Rights has contributed to establishing the rule of law de iure in Central and Eastern European countries, however its impact on the rule of law has been in practice limited due to institutional and policy limitations and wide-spread conundrums relating to the separation of powers, weak institutions and corruption.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1024755569
What is a real character of judicial (self)-government in Slovenia? Does it live up to the standards established in a well-ordered society, based on the established rule of law and consolidated democracy? This certainly is an impression that an external critical, but uniformed, observer develops when he or she approaches the legal regulation of judicial (self)-government in Slovenia. This also is an impression that has been perpetuated in academic and professional circles prior and after the enlargement of the EU. The article dispels this myth. It does so by providing a comprehensive assessment of all the bodies and processes involved in the judicial (self)-government in Slovenia. Contrary to the prevalent formalistic legal approach, which dominates the legal scholarship concerned with judicial governance and the courts more generally, the article relies on a socio-legal methodological approach. It therefore situates the system of judicial self-government in the Slovenian socio-political context in order to provide an insight into how the judicial self-government really works and to what an extent it falls short of the normative ideals prescribed by the Slovenian positive law.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2053266358
Human dignity is a fundamental value of a democratic and the rule-of-law state, without which the rule of law cannot be established and fully excercised. The rule of law restricts the arbitrariness of state power and strong interest groups by protecting the dignity of the individual and society as a whole. Human dignity is not conditioned by the worldview of an individual, but belongs to him from the mere fact that he is a human being. It is thus directly linked to human life and the right to life and its realisation. The rule of law is unconditionally linked to human dignity, since it regulates the functioning of a democracy and the rule-of-law state. The present contribution therefore addresses human dignity as the basis for the functioning of the rule of law. In the first part, human dignity is defined and analyzed as a cornerstone of the rule of law. The second part then presents and analyzes the case law of the Constitutional Court of Slovenia. The third part gives some sugges ons for its concre za on and improvement in the Slovenian society. Human dignity is the cornerstone of the rule of law, which every society must implement and protect in every way possible.
COBISS.SI-ID: 7876954
In this article the author applies the relation of a diaspora towards its mother country to the case of selected Australian Slovenians and their views to the state of democracy and rule of law in Slovenia. Diasporic communities are known to keep ties to their mother countries and to be interested in the happening there. This becomes even stronger in the times of crisis or big changes. Australian Slovenians were most engaged in the time of the process of the democratization and gaining independence of Slovenia. They still remember that time and look to the present situation with sentiments of that time. The empirical part of the article shows, on the basis of semistructured interviews with carefully selected reference persons, how the state of democracy and rule of law in Slovenia is viewed by (selected) Australian Slovenes after more than twenty-five years since the establishment of an independent state. The article shows how their views differ in terms of emigration time, political beliefs and how precisely they follow the happening in Slovenia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2053198518