Dr. Matej Avbelj

ARRS funded project (project leader) The main research question of this project: What future is there for the EU and how to bring it about? is of a huge theoretical and practical importance. Theoretically, it takes up the most important research challenge facing the scholars of European integration. In practical terms, this challenge sits at the heart of national and supranational political debates and has, necessarily, also trickled down to the common people. Essentially, this is the political question of the EU. It concerns the very viability of the integration process, now and in the future. Political answers are directed to practices, eg to affect actual institutional changes. However, they can only do so successfully, subject to other constraints of the process of social construction of reality, if they are informed by coherent theories.

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ARRS funded project. Within the framework of this project dr. Avbelj is conducting research in the constitutional visions of the Slovenian dissidents contributing to the establishment of the independent Slovenian state.

The Influence of Judges' Worldview on their Decisions The purpose of the proposed project is to perform the first in-depth research into ideological profiles of members of the judiciary in Slovenia, while adapting the methodology and interpretation to take into consideration the usual criticism against similar research in other countries. The objectives of the research are theoretical, applicative and normative.

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Dr. Matej Avbelj is a project co-coordinator on behalf of FDS, which is part of an international consortium of leading European universities (Helsinki University, Aix-Marseilles, King's College London, Maastricht University, Free University Berlin) cooperating in a transnational research funded by the European Commission on the use and relevance of soft-law in the national judicial and administrative practices.

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The project aims at analysing the legal and political consequences of the membership of EU member states in the European monetary union. The final result of the project will be a scientific monograph dealing with all EU member states. Dr Avbelj is preparing the report for Slovenia.

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The general aim of this research project is to examine the state of democracy and rule of law in Slovenia, and attempt to design reform proposals. The research will determine the influence of the Council of Europe through the European Court of Human Rights and the European Union through the Court of Justice of the EU on the conditions for the functioning of democracy and rule of law in Slovenia. The analysis will focus on how effectively democracy and rule of law in Slovenia are guarded by the judicial, the legislative and the executive branch of power. Moreover, the project will examine how effectively the Slovenian law protects human rights and fundamental freedoms. Here, the question will be why flaws in the functioning of democracy and rule of law in Slovenia persist despite the influence of the Council of Europe and the EU. This way, we will attempt to determine the inconsistencies and shortcomings in the Slovenian public sphere and prepare proposals for correcting these flaws. The basic aim of the research is therefore to find ways of reforming the democracy and rule of law in Slovenia.

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This post-doctoral project focused on a theoretical and applicative analysis of the relationship between the European Union and trans-national law in the light of the theory of legal pluralism.

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