Legal culture and the rule of law

The aim of the Research Group on the Rule of Law is to conduct research on the quality, effectiveness, and legitimacy of the protection of individual and societal interests exercised by those who apply and create law within the rule-of-law state: the public administration, the courts, and the legislature.

Today, there is limited research on the criteria used to assess and define the quality, effectiveness, and legitimacy of those who apply and create law in a rule-of-law state. Research on what makes a state a rule-of-law state is itself limited. The knowledge base for understanding how sector-specific strengthening and development affect the legal balance of power within the rule-of-law state is weak. As a result, it may appear easier to determine whether a rule-of-law state exists or not than to contribute to the creation, transformation, and governance of the development of the rule of law. This is problematic for several closely related reasons.

Europe: The rule of law under pressure

First, in recent years we have witnessed the systematic dismantling of several rule-of-law states in Europe. The European rule of law is currently under severe pressure. In both Hungary and Poland, the rule of law is under significant strain. The value of constitutional guarantees designed to secure judicial independence has become more important to assess than before. Our own Constitution contains few such guarantees. If we are to safeguard our rule-of-law state for the future, there must be room for a knowledge-based constitutional debate at the national level.

The EU: A new transnational rule-of-law state

Second, the EU and the Council of Europe have emerged as a new, transnational rule-of-law state. Historically, the boundaries of the rule-of-law state largely coincided with the borders of the nation-state. During the latter half of the twentieth century, this began to change. In the period following the Second World War—and especially after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989—rule-of-law functions have also been developed and enforced through the Council of Europe’s human rights regime and the EU’s legal order. Norway, too, has become part of this growing pan-European rule-of-law framework. As a result, Norwegian administrative, judicial, and legislative processes are changing in both character and substance. This new transnational rule-of-law state both supplements and overlaps with the national rule-of-law state. While various aspects of this development are being studied today, often from a separation-of-powers perspective, they are less frequently examined from a comprehensive and holistic rule-of-law perspective.

Norway as an exporter of the rule of law

Third, the character of the rule of law is also changing outside Europe. Although discussions of the rule of law take place in a global arena, the argumentation is often one-directional. In the years following 1989, Norway became an exporter of the rule of law. This means that institutions such as the police, the courts, the Ministry of Justice, and administrative bodies have sent personnel abroad to provide rule-of-law training in other countries. They have also received delegations from other countries seeking to learn about the rule of law in Norway. In this way, Norway has communicated its own experiences, but these same experiences are only to a limited extent used as governance tools for the further development of the Norwegian rule-of-law state. Nor are these experiences sufficiently transformed into development programmes adapted to different contexts.

A research group with a holistic rule-of-law perspective

One of the central objectives of the Research Group on the Rule of Law is to contribute research based on a holistic rule-of-law perspective. The group will work on research questions that cut across the sectors that apply and create law within the rule-of-law state: the public administration, the courts, and the legislature.

The work of the research group will be particularly relevant at a time when rule-of-law functions are being developed and enforced at both national and transnational levels, and when core rule-of-law principles—such as judicial independence—are under threat in Europe.