Understanding politics across borders and divides
Published: October 5, 2026 Italian voters rejected a constitutional reform of the judiciary in March 2026, handing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni the first major defeat of her government. Six months on, the dispute over how Italy elects its next parliament has replaced the dispute over its courts. The Chamber of Deputies is expected to hold … Read more
Published: July 29, 2026 Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled on 28 July that the government regulation allowing registry offices to record foreign same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. The government’s response was that the body issuing the ruling is not a court, that what it produced is therefore not a judgment, and that nothing in Polish law has … Read more
Last Updated: July 2026 Overview Europe is the only region in the world where an international body can withhold large sums of money from a member state over how it appoints judges, and the past decade has been a test of whether that works. The European Union suspended around 19 billion euros in funding to … Read more
Overview Independent courts are the main institution standing between government power and the individual, and by most measures they are losing ground. The World Justice Project found that 68% of countries declined on rule-of-law measures in 2025, up sharply from 57% the year before, with judicial independence among the hardest-hit indicators. The decline now touches … Read more