Laurent Pech is Professor of European Law, Jean Monnet Chair of European Public Law (2014-17) and Head of the Law and Politics Department at Middlesex University London. Laurent is also a Visiting Professor of Law at Bordeaux University, an expert for eLabEurope, and a member of the editorial board of the Hague Journal on the Rule of Law as well as a member of the scientific board of the Montesquieu Law Review. He has been a visiting professor at many institutions, including his alma mater: Aix-Marseille University. In 2018, Professor Pech was appointed Fernand Braudel Fellow at the European University Institute. He is currently a member of a H2020 funded four-year multidisciplinary research project on "Reconciling Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and the Rule of Law" (RECONNECT).
Professor Pech specialises in EU Public Law and has lectured in a variety of subjects including EU Constitutional Law, EU Internal Market Law, EU Competition Law and EU Fundamental Rights Law. His current primary area of research is rule of law backsliding in Europe.
Prior to his appointment at Middlesex University, Laurent was Jean Monnet Lecturer in EU Public Law at the National University of Ireland Galway. During the course of his academic career, Laurent also worked in Canada (Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Canada Research Chair on Globalization, Citizenship and Democracy) and in the United States (Emile Noel Fellow at NYU Law). He has worked as a legal consultant in many post-conflict or EU candidate countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Latvia and Montenegro, either on behalf of the Council of Europe or in the context of EU-funded assistance and training programmes. He has also worked as an external examiner at many institutions including the Law Society of Ireland.
Professor Pech is the author of two books and more than one hundred scholarly publications, on such subjects as the rule of law in the EU, the scope of application of European human rights standards and the right to free speech in comparative law. His most recent papers are generally available on the website of the Social Science Research Network and/or on Academia.edu. He also regularly contributes to legal blogs such as the Verfassungblog.
Professor Pech's scholarship has been cited by national and European courts as well as EU bodies. In 2011, Laurent was awarded a European scholarship prize for outstanding research on the EU's Lisbon Treaty. The same year, the Undergraduate Awards of Ireland and Northern Ireland also awarded him a certificate in recognition of excellence in lecturing. In 2018, he was awarded The Good Lobby Academic of the Year prize.
Amongst his most recent publications are:
‘Protecting Polish judges from Poland’s Disciplinary “Star Chamber”’ (2021) 58 Common Market Law Review 137
Written submission in response to the Rule of Law call by the Joint Committee on EU Affairs of the House of the Oireachtas, RECONNECT Policy Brief, January 2021
Dealing with ‘fake judges’ under EU Law: Poland as a Case Study in light of the Court of Justice’s ruling of 26 March 2020 in Simpson and HG, RECONNECT Working Paper no. 8, May 2020
Meaning and Scope of the EU Rule of Law, RECONNECT Deliverable 7.2, 30 April 2020 (lead author with Dr Joelle Grogan)
Unity and Diversity in National Understandings of the Rule of Law in the EU, RECONNECT Deliverable 7.1, 30 April 2020 (lead author with Dr Joelle Grogan)
The Rule of Law in the EU: The Evolution of the Treaty Framework and Rule of Law Toolbox, RECONNECT Working Paper No. 7, March 2020
‘EU External Human Rights Policy’, in R. Wessel and J. Larik (eds), EU External Relations Law. Text, Cases and Materials (Hart, 2nd edition, 2020, co-authored with Dr Joelle Grogan)
‘Upholding the Rule of Law in the EU: What Role for the EUFRA’, in R. Byrne and H. Entzinger (eds), Human Rights Law and Evidence-Based Policy. The Role of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (Routledge, 2020, co-authored with Dr Joelle Grogan)
‘The uses and abuses of constitutional pluralism: Undermining the rule of law in the name of constitutional identity in Hungary and Poland’ (2019) 21 Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 59-74 (co-authored with Prof Dan Kelemen)
How to build and consolidate a partly free pseudo democracy by constitutional means in three steps: The “Hungarian model’’ (2019) RECONNECT Working Paper No. 4, October 2019 (co-authored with Prof Petra Bárd)
Strengthening the Rule of Law within the European Union: Diagnoses, Recommendations, and What to Avoid, RECONNECT Policy Brief, 14 June 2019 (lead author with Prof Dimitry Kochenov)
‘Judicial independence under threat: The Court of Justice to the rescue’ (2018) 55 Common Market Law Review 1827-1854 (co-authored with Prof Sebastien Platon)
‘Why autocrats love constitutional identity and constitutional pluralism – Lessons from Hungary and Poland’, RECONNECT Working Paper No. 2, September 2018 (co-authored with Prof Dan Kelemen)
‘Conflits de lois et compétence internationale des tribunaux français’ [jurisdictions and conflict of laws disputes in defamation and privacy cases] in LexisNexis Juris-Classeur Communication, no. 3000, 2018 (2nd edition)
'Illiberalism Within: Rule of Law Backsliding in the EU' (2017) 19 Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 3-47 (co-authored with Prof Kim Scheppele)
‘Thinking Justice Outside the Docket: A Critical Assessment of the Reform of the EU’s Court System’ (2017) 54(1) Common Market Law Review 1-48 (co-authored with Prof Alberto Alemanno)
French (mother tongue)
Italian (basic)
Serbo-Croatian (basic)
Research Interests:
EU Public Law
European Human Rights Law
Rule of Law (doctrinal & practical issues)
Pech, Laurent (2021) Right to an independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law under Article 47 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In: The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: A Commentary. Peers, Steve and Hervey, Tamara and Kenner, Jeff and Ward, Angela , eds. Hart/Beck, United Kingdom. ISBN 9781509933471 (Accepted/In press)
Pech, Laurent and Kochenov, Dimitry (2021) Respect for the rule of law in the case law of the European Court of Justice: a casebook overview of key judgments since the Portuguese Judges Case. Other. Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies, Stockholm, Sweden.
Pech, Laurent (2021) The rule of law. In: The Evolution of EU Law. Craig, Paul and de Búrca, Gráinne , eds. Oxford University Press, UK, pp. 307-338. ISBN 9780192846556
Pech, Laurent and Wachowiec, Patryk and Mazur, Dariusz (2021) Poland’s rule of law breakdown: a five-year assessment of EU’s (in)action. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law , 13 (1). pp. 1-43. ISSN 1876-4045
Pech, Laurent (2020) Dealing with ‘fake judges’ under EU Law: Poland as a case study in light of the Court of Justice’s ruling of 26 March 2020 in Simpson and HG. Working Paper. RECONNECT, Leuven, Belgium.
