NET-ROL Consortium Meets in Trento
On May 27–28, the NET-ROL project consortium gathered for an intensive two-day meeting hosted by the Università di Trento. The meeting brought together our experts from across Europe - representing legal studies, political science, sociology, economics and data science - united by a shared goal: to better understand the changing dynamics of the rule of law in contemporary Europe.
Instead of treating the rule of law solely as a set of formal institutions and procedures, NET-ROL explores how informal relationships, value systems, and network dynamics influence legal systems, democratic resilience and governance outcomes.
At the Trento meeting, participants engaged in interdisciplinary discussions on the project’s core thematic areas, including:
- Democratic backsliding and elite accountability
- Civic engagement and resistance
- Institutional independence and performance
- Informal norms, values and social networks
These topics were analysed through a shared conceptual framework that rethinks the rule of law not as a fixed condition, but as a dynamic system shaped by networks of power, trust and coordination. Discussions drew from recent findings on “thin” versus “thick” definitions of the rule of law, the role of citizen perceptions and expectations, and the complex interplay between legal, social and economic structures.
This approach grounded in both theory and real-world complexity - is what makes NET-ROL innovative. By bridging disciplinary boundaries, the project creates new pathways to understand how informal institutions and social configurations impact formal rule-of-law systems. This is especially important at a time when legal standards are challenged not just by legislative changes, but by shifting norms and network-based forms of state capture and democratic erosion.
As the project progresses, NET-ROL will continue developing robust methods to measure these interactions and produce insights for both researchers and policymakers. The Trento meeting laid the groundwork for the next phase of fieldwork and data collection.
More updates and outputs will follow soon.
