Project R-16991

The Role of Identity-Fracture in the Transatlantic Rule of Law Crisis (Research)

Across the transatlantic sphere, rule-of-law standards have come under sustained pressure. Existing theories increasingly recognise the socio-cultural infrastructure of the rule of law, yet they insufficiently explain how rule-of-law standards depend on a polity's shared capacity to imagine itself as a political unity. This project addresses that gap by theorising identity fracture: the gradual process whereby the possibility of a constitutional polity to imagine itself as a political unity collapse over time. Using a comparative case-study design, the project examines two crisis-moments: Ireland's Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Bill (2022) and the US Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022). By tracing how formal (legal certainty/stability), institutional (checks and balances/judicial authority), and substantive (rights and equality) rule-of-law standards were contested in these episodes, the project argues that these standards structurally depend on a shared constitutional identity to be realised in practice. The result is a refined socio-cultural account of rule-of-law breakdown with implications for diagnosing and responding to contemporary backsliding.

16 September 2026 - 15 September 2030