The legal framework of political and parliamentary opposition in the light of the EU Enlargement to the Western Balkans: A comparative foreword
DI PASQUALE VIOLA
ABSTRACT – The enlargement to the Western Balkans represents one of the crucial
pillars for the next future’s political strategies of the European Union, and discourses
on conditionality shed lights on the importance of legal comparison to further
analyse the candidate states’ EU acquis within their domestic legal systems.
According to this entrenched pattern, key aspects regarding democratic functioning
of the political systems and the rule of law are fundamental concerns in order of
respecting EU standards. Against this backdrop, opposition (both political and
parliamentary) is a key-topic and concern for securing the aforementioned
benchmarks. Moving from these postulations, the article addresses different – but
interconnected – topics with the aim of fostering a scholarly and interdisciplinary
dialogue under a critical methodology, going through several crucial steps: after an
introduction drafting the whole structure of the essay, paragraph 2 exposes the
reasons in providing an unambiguous definition of ‘opposition’, thus trying to
overcome such a burden to define it in political and legal terms. Paragraph 3
provides several comparative public law data – especially in reference to
constitutional systems – on how political systems (forms of government) cope with
issues deriving from their own democratic machinery. Paragraph 4 introduces the
EU enlargement policy to the Western Balkans and recalls the state of the art of the
two ‘frontrunners’ (Serbia and Montenegro) in reference to current matters related to
opposition. Conclusion highlights the need of considering further hypothesis in
dealing with opposition and democratic functioning.
KEYWORDS – Comparative Public Law – EU Enlargement – Comparative Legal
Systems – Western Balkans – Opposition (Political and Parliamentary)