Effects of Europeanisation on Rule of Law in Serbia

Abstract: Contrary to the widespread opinion of Europeanisation scholars that the EU transforms states, having transformative power, the theory of the EU’s pathological power argues that in the area of rule of law the EU has negatively reinforcing effects on certain rule of law dimensions which results in weak rule of law. The thesis will test the theory of EU’s pathological power against rule of law in Serbia, through a case study on judiciary reforms. The thesis aims to find out if the EU has pathological effects on Serbia’s rule of law after Serbia became a candidate country in 2012 as well as to contribute to the development of the theory of the EU’s pathological power on the case of Serbia. In order to trace developments of rule of law during the four-year period, the thesis will employ a qualitative content analysis with process tracing of new empirical material, i.e. three types of reports which provided information about the state of the Serbian judiciary from 2013 to 2016. If results confirm the theory, the theory of the EU’s pathological power will be strengthened, which is of vast importance not just for academia, but for society and the policy-making process on the EU level, as it will be showed that EU reforms do not improve but rather worsen the state of rule of law.