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11 Hague J. on Rule L. 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/hagjuote11 and id is 1 raw text is: Hague Journal on the Rule of Law (2019) 11:1-8 https:Ildoi.org/l 0.1007/s40803-019-00090-6 EDITORIAL Rule of Law Decay: Terminology, Causes, Methods, Markers and Remedies Maurice Adams' Ronald Janse2 ŠT.M.C. Asser Press 2019 Abstract This special issue on rule of law decay addresses a range of issues prompted by recent developments in Poland, Hungary and elsewhere: How to conceptualize rule of law decay? What are its characteristics? How can it be explained? Can it be detected at an early stage? What is the methodology of undermining the rule of law? What, if anything, can outsiders, especially the EU, do to counter this decay? What lessons can be drawn for demands imposed on candidates by the EU in future enlargement rounds? 1 Introduction to this Half-Planned Special Issue When this journal was launched, in 2009, Martin Krygier edited a special issue on The fall of European Communism: 20 years after. It was not a confident celebration of rule of law reforms in Central and Eastern Europe. The authors cautioned that it was not possible to generalize about success or failure because too many countries and too many variables were involved. Moreover, what is 20 years in the lifespan of the rule of law in any country? Yet they believed that a basic level of democracy and the rule of law had been achieved and that the break with the past was irrevers- ible. As Venelin Ganev wrote: 'It would take a great deal of paranoid imagining to conjure up a scenario where ruling parties in the region cancel elections, imprison opposition activists on trumped up charges, and suppress the democratic process. And that power-holders in the EU's newest members will suspend their country's E Ronald Janse ronald.janse@ou.nl Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands 2 Open University, Heerlen, The Netherlands _ Springer 0 ASSER