Defending rule of law is everyone’s job (including students!)
What is Our Rule of Law?
Our Rule of Law (ORoL) is a student-led project co-created by Elene Amiranashvili, Tekla Emborg, Zuzanna Uba and Anna Walczak with the mentorship of Professor John Morijn. We initiated the project in our first year as LLB-students at the University in Groningen inspired by the ongoing rule of law crisis in Poland.
Since Poland is only one of the countries at risk, we have gradually expanded our focus to the EU as a whole. We are now working on engaging the youth in creating Pan-European policy solutions to the rule of law crisis though our latest project, ORoL Academy.
3 core values:
Democracy is worth it - we want to live in democratic societies with protection of minorities, separation of power amongst different governing institutions, and an active civil society with meaningful public participation!
Taking action - we do something to combat the democratic backsliding ripping our countries and the EU apart.
For students, by students - we create forums for young people to learn from and with each other.
The initial spark:
The first year of our law studies in 2020 can be summarised as scarce masked interactions and black squares in zoom calls. Looking for engagement outside our studies, we all happened to attend a lecture by Professor John Morijn on the democratic backslide in Poland. In the proceeding week, on a snowy February day, the four of us met on a walk and continued the discussion. Since then we have been cultivating a community of engaged students who share similar values.