This project studies and compares the political, economic, and legal mechanisms that strengthen democratic resilience in contexts of democratic erosion and transition, focusing on the cases of Guatemala and Poland. It seeks to demonstrate that law can provide effective tools such as systems of positive and negative conditionality to halt institutional decline and promote the recovery of the rule of law. Methodologically, it combines intraregional analysis of systemic deficits and institutional responses with a transregional comparison that identifies lessons learned across Latin America and Europe. The research aims to develop a repertoire of mechanisms applicable in both regions, highlighting how international commitments can serve as allies in institutional reconstruction and in the preservation of constitutional democracy.
Project Allies
Region / Focus
Europe + Latin America, digital politics
Associated references
- Bobek, M., Bodnar, A., von Bogdandy, A., & Sonnevend, P. (Eds.). (2023). Transition 2.0: Re-establishing Constitutional Democracy in EU Member States. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft.
- Kochenov, D., & Bárd, P. (2019). The last soldier standing? Courts vs. politicians and the rule of law crisis in the new member states of the EU. University of Groningen Faculty of Law Research Paper Series, 5.
- Levinson, S., & Balkin, J. M. (2009). Constitutional crises. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 157(3), 707–728.
- Torres, A. P. (2024). The constitutional impact of rule-of-law spending conditionality. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 22(3), 859–881.
- Halmai, G. (2018). The possibility and desirability of economic sanction: Rule of law conditionality requirements against illiberal EU Member States. EUI Working Paper LAW 2018/06.
Viviana Krsticevic
Viviana Krsticevic is Executive Director of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), based in Washington, D.C. and Buenos Aires. A lawyer and human rights advocate with decades of experience in international litigation, she has represented victims and civil society organizations before the Inter-American Court and Commission of Human Rights in landmark cases. She lectures and publishes widely on human rights protection, transitional justice, and democratic resilience, and serves on advisory boards of several international human rights initiatives.
Anna Luisa Walter
Anna Luisa Walter de Santana is Professor in the Graduate Program in Law at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUCPR), where she also earned her PhD in Law. She is a member of the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association and serves on the Executive Council of the Latin American Academy of Human Rights and Business.
Jorge Roa
Jorge Ernesto Roa Roa is Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at Universidad Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) and previously taught at Universidad Externado de Colombia. He holds a PhD in Law from Universidad Pompeu Fabra, as well as law degrees from Colombia. His work centers on constitutional design, constitutional justice, and the protection of fundamental rights in Latin America and Europe. He has served as a consultant to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and has published extensively on comparative constitutional law.
Joan Solanes Mullor
Joan Solanes Mullor is Associate Professor of Constitutional Law at Universidad Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He holds a PhD in Law from the same university and has been a visiting researcher at institutions in Germany, the United States, and Latin America. His research focuses on constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law, and the rule of law, with a particular emphasis on democratic backsliding, judicial independence, and constitutional courts in Europe and Latin America.
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