Kick Off of the Project on the Rule of Law in Germany and Poland

On March 13, the kick‑off meeting inaugurating the project The Rule of Law and its Social Reception as Determinants of Economic Development. A Comparative Analysis of Germany and Poland took place in Berlin. The project, originated by CASE, is a multidisciplinary study that combines the legal, economic, and sociological perspectives. Building on the school of new institutional economics, it examines the ways in which the rule of law impacts on economic outcomes – for example economic growth and investments – in Germany and in Poland. We define the rule of law as the principle of primacy of law in social organization and of equality of all before law. We pay particular attention to those emanations of the rule of law that are indispensable to healthy economic life – including legal certainty, property rights, and an independent judiciary.

An innovative feature of our research is that it will consider both legal provisions as such (the de jure dimension of the rule of law) and the actual social working of those provisions (the de facto dimension of the rule of law). Accordingly, our methodology will combine legal analysis with empirical – sociological and econometric – studies. The project will be carried out in cooperation with the European Academy Berlin (EAB). It will be financed by the German‑Polish Foundation for Science and from CASE’s and EAB’s own funds. We invite everyone to follow news on the study, which we will be publishing on our social media.

Author: Krzysztof Głowacki