Comparing Judicial Activism Across Eastern Europe

The main phase of data collection—conducting interviews with judges in Hungary, Romania, and Poland—has largely been completed. In Hungary, we have so far conducted twelve interviews, and in Romania, thirteen interviews, both in person and online. In Poland, thirteen interviews were conducted with judges across various sectors of the legal system, from regional and district courts to apex courts. Our interviewees across the three countries include judges from civil, administrative, and criminal court divisions, some of whom are still actively serving while others are retired. Judges from all levels of the judiciary are represented in our sample, from first instance courts, county courts, and tribunals, through courts of appeal, the high court, and even the constitutional court.

In all three countries, most respondents are based in the capitals; however, we have also interviewed judges working in regional areas. Interviews began in June 2022 (for Poland) October 2023 (for Romania and Hungary) and are ongoing, with final completion anticipated by the end of this year.

In Germany, interviews started in 2024; participants include representatives of associations of judges and other legal professionals, individual judges and transnational associations.

In October 2023, Dr Kubal and Dr Huszka, together with the project partners Professor Birgit Apitzsch and Professor Ramona Coman officially launched the ‘Judicial Activism as a modality of resistance and a form of communication’ project in Brussels.

The year after, at the 2024 BASEES Conference in Cambridge, the team participated in two well-attended panels focused on authoritarian backsliding and forms of resistance. The first panel was led by Birgit Apitzsch and Zeynep Bozkurt, both from Ruhr-University Bochum, and explored how German legal professionals perceive and respond to emerging threats to judicial independence. The second panel, brought together Leonardo Puleo (University College Dublin) and Ramona Coman (Université libre de Bruxelles), discussed how judges in Poland, Hungary, and Romania navigate political pressures to uphold judicial independence.

Apitzsch, B., Vogel, B. (2024) Wolfgang Kaupen: Die Hüter von Recht und Ordnung [Wolfgang Kaupen: The guardians of law and order], in: Bora, A., Kretschmann, A. (Eds) Soziologische Theorien des Rechts [Sociological theories of law], Velbrück, 138-150

Coman, R., Puleo, L. (2024) Opposition and resistance: how judges and professional associations in Poland, Hungary, and Romania defend their independence, East European Politics, 28(1): 1–22

Kubal, A. (2024) Judicial relational legal consciousness: authoritarian backsliding as a catalyst of change, Journal of Law and Society, 24(1): 1-21 

Kubal, A. (2024) Queer coalition? The crisis of justice in Poland and the LGBT rights before the Polish courts, Europe-Asia Studies, 76(9): 1347-1370

Kubal, A. and M. Mrowicki (2024) Pushback or Backlash against the European Court of Human Rights? A Comparative Case Study of Russia and Democratically Backsliding Poland, Russian Politics, 9(1): 135-159 

Kubal, A. (2023) The Women’s Complaint: sociolegal mobilization against authoritarian backsliding following the 2020 abortion law in Poland, Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 31(3): 585-605

Kubal, A. (2023) Dissenting Consciousness: A Socio-Legal Analysis of Russian Migration Cases before the European Court of Human Rights, The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Civic and Political Studies, 18(2): 57-77

This project is supported by Dr Beata Huszka from the Human Rights in Eastern Europe and Russia team, Professor Birgit Apitzsch from University of Bochum, and Professor Ramona Coman from Université Libre de Bruxelles.