Trojan Horse Discourse: The Use and Abuse of Contemporary Constitutional Discourse for Fundamental Rights Protection.

Europe is confronted with a rise of autocratic regimes and tendencies. In this context, academic research and media have reported on Member States relying on current concepts of European constitutional law that structure the interaction and dialogue between the domestic and European legal order for the pu ose of reinforcing its own policy to the detriment of fundamental rights protection. Such concepts often established to reconcile European and domestic constitutional standards of fundamental rights protection and based on a mutual understanding of the minimum thresholds of protection appear hijacked by authoritarian states. The research project aims first to map and understand the current dynamics of this novel evolution to the background of the rationales for these mechanisms. Second it intends to assess whether the current conception of interaction between the European and national legal order on the protection of fundamental rights is to be revisited in order to more effectively prevent constitutional concepts to undermine fundamental rights protection. To this aim, it combines legal analysis with critical discourse analysis.

Keywords:EUROPEAN UNION LAW, CONSTITUTIONALISM, DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Disciplines:Constitutional law, European law, Human rights law, Discourse studies