Who We Are?

The Rule of Law Monitoring Mechanism (RoLMM) is an inter-disciplinary initiative of the School of Law of the Cyprus Campus of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan Cyprus). The formation of RoLMM has been prompted by the global spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the decision of the World Health Organization, on 11 March 2020, to declare the existence of a pandemic. The formation of RoLMM has also been motivated by a growing concern for – and determination to protect – the rule of law, the proper administration of justice, human dignity and fundamental freedoms as well as rights including the right to life and socio-economic rights. These and so many other characteristics of a democratic society that are at risk of being adversely affected amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic or any other crisis of comparable magnitude.

RoLMM is founded on the expertise of the academics of the School of Law of UCLan Cyprus, their long-standing knowledge transfer activities and their past or ongoing publications and research projects relating to the rule of law or crises of one sort or another. See for example:

• 2018 Roundtable of Experts, Promoting and Protecting Socio-Economic Rights in Times of Crisis in Europe

• 2019 Public Lecture on the EU Charter and Round Table on the protection of personal data by Professor Koen Lenaerts on the occasion of his official visit as President of the Court of Justice of the European Union to Cyprus

• 2019 Roundtable of Experts, Rule of Law backsliding in the EU

• Symposium for 60th Anniversary of the Republic of Cyprus

• EU externally funded project (2014-17), ‘The Law of Financial and Economic Governance in the EU’

• EU externally funded project (2019-22), ‘EU Law and Governance in Populist Times’

In light of the above, the primary purposes of RoLMM are to ask questions, to raise concerns, to highlight issues and to strive to hold public authorities as well as other decision makers to account. To these ends, RoLMM offers a peer-reviewed online platform, which is open to academics, advanced law students, members of the legal profession, other professionals, law enforcement officers, other public servants and all other persons who care about the rule of law. 

Notwithstanding its academic home within the School of Law of UCLan Cyprus,  RoLMM consciously seeks to adopt an inter-disciplinary approach.  In relation to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, such an inter-disciplinary approach is important in various fields, including medical law and ethics, and business law and ethics.

RoLMM will commission and publish peer-reviewed blog pieces.  In addition, from time to time, RoLMM will organise online Socratic dialogues, conversations, webinars and other events. To be informed for future events, subscribe to our mailing list here.

Subject to funding, RoLMM intends to operate on a long-term basis and, thus, beyond the period of current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This is because an array of ongoing as well as emerging threats are endangering the characteristics of a democratic society, including the rule of law, the proper administration of justice, human dignity and fundamental freedoms as well as rights, including the right to life and socio-economic rights. These threats need to be monitored, critically analysed or otherwise addressed both during and beyond the current pandemic.

For the avoidance of any doubt, the remit of RoLMM does not extend to the giving of legal advice or to the provision of any other forms of advice.  Equally, RoLMM will not serve as a vehicle to provide publicity, advertising or political endorsements.  It is – and will remain – an academic and, thus, non-partisan platform.

Professor Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou,
Dr Klearchos A. Kyriakides

RoLMM draws inspiration from the analyses of the rule of law provided by the late Lord Bingham of Cornhill,¹ by the pioneering work undertaken by the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in London,² and by the emphasis given by both the European Union Framework,³ and the Council of Europe to ‘monitoring mechanisms’.⁴ RoLMM is mindful of the specific COVID-19 responses, in the field of the rule of law, at the national,⁵ and supranational levels.⁶

The rule of law is a concept with a long and complicated history that remains open to interpretation and, indeed, criticism.  That being said, for the sake of coherence and simplicity, RoLMM rests on four intellectual premises.

The first premise is that ‘the core’ of the rule of law is the one defined by the late Lord Bingham of Cornhill, during his tenure as Senior Law Lord, in his celebrated lecture entitled ‘The Rule of Law’, as delivered on 16 November 2006. According to the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission), an organ of the Council of Europe, the definition provided by Lord Bingham ‘[p]erhaps … covers most appropriately the essential elements of the rule of law. ⁷

For Lord Bingham, the ‘core’ of the Rule of Law is that ‘all persons and authorities within the state, whether public or private, should be bound by and entitled to the benefit of laws publicly and prospectively promulgated and publicly administered in the courts.’⁸

The second premise is that the rule of law, again following Lord Bingham’s formulation, ‘may be conveniently broken down into a series of sub-rules’. Lord Bingham articulated eight such ‘sub-rules’. In summary,

1. Law should be accessible, clear and predictable;

2. Questions of legal right and liability should ordinarily be decided by application of the law and not the exercise of discretion;

3. Laws should apply equally to all

4. Ministers and public officials must exercise their powers in good faith, and for the purpose for which they were conferred, without exceeding the limits of such powers.

5. The law must protect fundamental rights

6. The state must accommodate a method through which civil disputes are resolved

7. The adjudicative procedures provided by the state must be fair

8. The rule of law requires the state to comply with its obligations in international as well as national law.

The third premise is that in a democratic sovereign state, particularly one that belongs to the European Union and that is subject to a codified ‘written constitution’, such as the Republic of Cyprus, the eight ‘sub-rules’ identified by Lord Bingham are supplemented by various other concepts.  These include constitutionalism, proportionality, good governance, transparency and, of course, democracy.  Each of these concepts is implicit in the list provided above, but none is expressly spelt out therein.

The fourth premise is that the rule of law lies at the core of four of the key supranational organisations to which Republic of Cyprus belongs: the United Nations; the Commonwealth; the Council of Europe; and the European Union.

Even though the rule of law is not expressly mentioned in the United Nations Charter of 1945,⁹ the concept has long been championed by the United Nations – on paper if not always in practice.¹⁰  Furthermore, the rule of law is expressly mentioned by the Preamble to the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950,¹¹ and by the Preambles as well as by the main bodies of the Commonwealth Charter of 2013,¹² and the Treaty on European Union.¹³  Indeed, under Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, the Republic of Cyprus and its fellow members of the European Union affirm that:

The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.

With regard to its geographical coverage, RoLMM is primarily concerned with upholding the rule of law in the Republic of Cyprus.  However, in view of the geopolitical location of this sovereign state at the inter-section of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the Council of Europe and the European Union, coupled with the background of UCLan Cyprus, RoLMM cannot overlook the impact of developments elsewhere in the European Union, in the United Kingdom, or in the wider world.  Indeed, bearing in mind the global reach of certain crises, such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, RoLMM is determined to avoid adopting an insular outlook.

As for its thematic coverage, RoLMM revolves around the operation of the rule of law in the Republic of Cyprus, particularly on the eve, in the midst, or in the aftermath of any grave crisis, including the pandemic. In this context and given its pre-occupation with times of crisis, RoLMM seeks to explore each of the six fundamental questions articulated below. 

Question 1: Is the rule of law safe or unsafe? 

Question 2: To what extent are public bodies, private bodies and individual people upholding or undermining the rule of law? 

Question 3: What is the proper role of judges, lawyers, legal academics and law students?  What is the proper function of each in a democratic society, particularly one that is in the midst of a crisis? In this context, how can citizens be further empowered, particularly in times of crisis, to ensure the sustainability of individual rights and democratic norms? 

Question 4: How may lawyers fulfil their ethical, professional, legal and other duties, while simultaneously protecting their physical and mental health, and overall wellbeing? 

Question 5: How, when and by which means may justice be delivered in response to any injustices allegedly caused by or during a crisis? 

Question 6: What lessons can we draw from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and any other past or ongoing crises?

Professor Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou

Prof. Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou has lectured, researched, supervised, transferred knowledge and run externally funded projects in several universities throughout Europe, including Cyprus and the UK, for the past 18 years. She is currently Professor of European Law and Reform and Head of the School of Law of the University of Central Lancashire in Cyprus (UCLan Cyprus). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She supervises numerous LLM dissertations and PhDs in fields related to her own research including the financial crisis, migration crisis, EU Citizenship, socio-economic rights in times of crisis, Brexit, the Rule of Law, privacy and other current issues in EU law. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises, she is the co-initiator of the Rule of Law Monitoring Mechanism https://lawblog.uclancyprus.ac.cy/rolmm/. She is now the Leader and Academic Coordinator of the Jean Monnet Module entitled ‘European Union Law and Governance in Populist Times’ (EU-POP) (2019-2022) https://eupopulism.eu/ and Chief Editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Populism related to EU-POP https://www.lawpop.eu/. She was also the Leader and Academic Coordinator of a Jean Monnet Module entitled ‘The Law of Financial and Economic Governance in the EU’ (FEcoGov) (2014-2017) looking at the multiple implications of the financial crisis in Cyprus and the EU. This project secured the European Commission’s label ‘success story’ and ‘good practice’ upon its completion (https://www.uclancyprus.ac.cy/research/jean-monnet-module/). She belongs to networks of academic or professional experts at the national and EU level, is an expert of the European Commission and its Agencies, and currently participates among others to the Horizon 2020 Sherpa project looking at smart information systems and human rights (https://www.project- sherpa.eu/). She has been a legal expert for the Legal Services of the Republic of Cyprus assisting the Commission of Inquiry on the collapse of the cooperative bank (2018-19). She is a certified Mediator as well as a Data Protection Officer and is very active in the organisation and delivery of CPD courses at the School of Law (https://www.uclancyprus.ac.cy/short-course/law-academy/). She is the Founding Member and Director of the non-profit organisation ICLAIM (Interdisciplinary Centre for Law, Alternative and Innovative Methods) which is used as a social enterprise vehicle for social and community projects having an impact on the society (see www.iclaimcentre.org). View her full academic profile at https://www.uclancyprus.ac.cy/academic/dr-laulhe- shaelou-stephanie/

Dr Klearchos A. Kyriakides

Klearchos A. Kyriakides holds an LLB Hons (Law & Politics) Degree from the University of Birmingham, an MPhil (International Relations) Degree together with a PhD (History) Degree from the University of Cambridge and a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Westminster. Since completing his studies, Klearchos has been an active member of the legal profession, as well as academia. In relation to the legal profession, Klearchos qualified as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 2003. Thereafter, until 2007, he practised Law in private practice in London. Since 2007, he has been a non-practising Solicitor and an ordinary member of the Law Society of England and Wales. From 2002 until 2015, Klearchos worked in the School of Law of the University of Hertfordshire, latterly as a senior lecturer teaching on various LLB and LPC modules. Since 2015, Klearchos has been an assistant professor in the School of Law of the Cyprus Campus of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). At UCLan, Klearchos has taught on a number of modules primarily relating to the English Legal System, Professional Skills and Public Law. Klearchos has authored a number of articles and other publications on a diverse array of subjects, which reflect his cross-disciplinary education and professional career.

Dr Andreas Marcou

Dr Andreas Marcou is a Lecturer in EU Law and Theory at the School of Law of UCLan University (Cyprus). Andreas completed his PhD in Law at Queen Mary, University of London, in 2020. His PhD thesis, entitled ‘A republican theory of civil disobedience’, investigates civil disobedience as a political action within a democratic society. It proposes that deliberate lawbreaking can sometimes be seen as conducive to law’s authority and democratic norms. His research interests include republican and liberal theories, law’s authority, theories of democracy and legitimacy at the national and the European level, and the duties and responsibilities of citizens within a liberal democracy. In addition to his PhD from Queen Mary, University of London, Andreas holds an LLB from the same University and an MA in Legal and Political Theory from University College, London. He has experience in higher education teaching having taught modules such as ‘Jurisprudence and Legal Theory’, ‘Law, Justice, and Ethics’, ‘Democracy and Justice’, and ‘Land Law’. Andreas is also the Editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Populism and a Research Fellow for the JMM ‘EU Law and Governance in Populist Times’. View his full academic profile at https://www.uclancyprus.ac.cy/academic/dr-andreas-marcou/