A mentorship programme for the next generation of rule of law defenders — National winner of the Charlemagne Youth Prize 2024!

About the project

The Our Rule of Law Academy was a three-month academic mentorship programme bringing together Bachelor students from across the EU to research democratic backsliding and propose concrete solutions. Between January and March 2023, 45 students from 25 Member States worked in supervised research groups, travelled to Brussels to pitch their findings to policymakers, and published a joint report freely available online.

The Academy grew directly out of what we had seen at our events: that young people were hungry to engage seriously with the rule of law crisis, not just as observers but as contributors. The Academy gave them the tools, the mentors, and the platform to do exactly that.

Three stages

  • Students joined one of eleven working groups, each focused on a distinct area of European democracy and rule of law. Under the supervision of leading experts in their field, they conducted original research and developed concrete policy proposals.

  • Participants gathered at Maastricht University Campus Brussels for two days of pitching, networking, and engagement with EU institutions. The programme included a town hall with the Jourava Cabinet, a keynote by Wolne Sady (#FreeCourts), four pitch sessions presenting all eleven working group proposals to policymakers and rule of law professionals, a reception at the Dutch Permanent Representation to the European Union, and a Rule of Law Tour of the European Commission.

  • After incorporating expert feedback, participants submitted their final proposals. The result was How to Save European Democracy: Report from the Our Rule of Law Academy, now freely available online.

View the Report

Highlights

The Academy opened with a public kick-off lecture by Professor Kim Lane Scheppele of Princeton University — Defending the Rule of Law in the EU: Everyone's Job (Including Students!) — on 29 November 2022.

It closed in Brussels with a speech by Eleanor Sharpston, former Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the EU, titled So you want to be a rule of law defender? — a question she answered from four decades of experience at the bar and on the bench.

The eleven working groups

  • Judicial Independence - led by Professor Laurent Pech and Judge Filipe Marques

  • Media Freedom - led by Dr Anna Wójcik, Dr Evangelia Psychogiopoulou and Dr Yustyna Somahalska 

  • Academic Freedom - led by Professor Gráinne de Burca and Dr Vasiliki Kosta 

  • Protection of NGOs/Civic Space - led by Ms Marta Pardavi and Dr Joelle Grogan

  • Protecting the EU Budget and Recovery Funds - led by Dr Matteo Bonelli and Dr Thu Nguyen

  • Legal Methods to Protect the Rule of Law - led by Professor Petra Bard and Professor Daniel Sarmiento 

  • Political and Policy Methods to Protect the Rule of Law - led by Professor Marlene Wind and Professor Jan Wouters

  • Protecting National Democracy - led by Professor Sebastien Platon and Dr Cassandra Emmons

  • European Political Groups - led by Dr Wouter Wolfs and Mr Alex Dimitrovs

  • (Non-)Implementation of ECtHR and ECJ judgments - led by Dr Barbara Grabowska-Moroz and Mr Jakub Jaraczewski

  • Amicus Curiae at the ECJ (by the Good Lobby) - led by Professor Alberto Alemanno and Professor Jasper Krommendijk

Academy supporters