Das Rückschrittsverbot als Instrument Europäischen Werteschutzes

The non-regression principle developed by the European Court of Justice can today be understood as an autonomous constitutional principle and a tool for safeguarding the values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union. Lena Sophie Kaiser reconstructs the emergence of this instrument, which evolved in response to the European rule-of-law and democracy crisis, while also examining the limits of its legitimacy. Drawing on a dialectical, multilingual comparative analysis of selected reference fields as well as a doctrinal reconstruction and examination of the relevant case law, she develops a conception of the non-regression principle as a relative and dynamic instrument that identifies regression as a sufficiently serious lowering of the level of protection, conceived as a systemic deficiency. Her methodological approach of doctrinal constructivism links the further development of the law with its systematic ordering, thereby extending the non-regression principle to all values protected by Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.