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The right to freedom of peaceful assembly is guaranteed by Article 39 of the Ukrainian Constitution. However, there is no stand-alone law or case law that defines, regulates and supports the process of organizing and conducting peaceful assemblies. This is largely due to the fact that until the 2014 Maidan Revolution (Euromaidan), Ukraine’s history was one of autocratic rule. This article argues that given this historical context, secondary legislation is needed to safeguard this freedom and entrench it into Ukrainian legal culture. The idea of the right to peaceful assembly is sacrosanct. This article analyses the key elements needed to transform this idea into an ideal law. For example, any such legislation should follow the spirit of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), especially in the area of limitations of the personal freedom. Ukraine has moved forward on a broad reform agenda including reforms of the judiciary in order to create an independent and competent court system. It is widely recognized that such a system is needed to fight widespread corruption. The article argues that now is the time to enact a law on peaceful assembly in order to elevate Ukraine’s legal system to EU and international standards.

This article is an exploratory study of the Czech response to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It employs the perspective of the small state literature to analyse the activities of a small European Union (EU) member state’s government that had to face a mismatch between its policy priorities and policy framing at the EU and domestic level. The article focuses on the arguably common situation of a small state’s government failing to shape a policy internationally and facing a backlash at home. On the basis of a qualitative study of primary and secondary sources as well as semi-structured interviews, the article explores how the Czech debate on GDPR prioritised the bureaucratic burden and costs resulting from the GDPR implementation over the need for privacy as an integral part of human dignity highlighted at the EU level. The article identifies two crucial factors as the basis of the popular backlash against GDPR in Czechia, the lack of prioritisation and the insufficient bureaucratic capacity. These two factors, widely identified in the literature as factors influencing small states’ performance, contributed to the Czech inability to shape GDPR at the European level, as well as the lacking information campaign and implementation domestically.

Post-Cold War expansion of liberal order rested on three legs: the implosion of major alternative ordering projects, the enjoyment by liberal democracies of a “patronage monopoly,” and the dominance of liberalizing transitional activist networks and movements. By 2019, all three of those legs have been turned upside down. China and Russia, among others, offer new ordering projects, countries enjoy “exit options” in the form of alternative patronage, and illiberal activist networks are in the ascendant. A closer look at the “why” and “how” makes clear that illiberal forces have appropriated and repurposed the toolkit used to expand liberal order, which suggests an apparent paradox. While some forms of liberal order—primarily on the political side—are in retreat, other forms of liberal order—especially in terms of institutional and multilateral arrangements—are being reinforced. We are, therefore, looking not at the end of liberal order, but at a third great transformation in it.

In this article, we explore Greek journalists’ perceptions of European Union (EU) journalism, the ways in which they talk about EU affairs, European integration and the EU establishment. There is a lack of research on how journalists from member states of the EU periphery deal with EU affairs. Greece being one of those member states is in our opinion an interesting case study, given circumstances like the financial or refugee crisis. We look at the challenges Greek journalists face in dealing with EU affairs, those they share with journalists from other countries, and those that are unique to the Greek case. We also look at certain coping strategies Greek journalists engage with in dealing with those challenges. Via our discussion we wish to offer a deeper insight into EU periphery journalists’ approaches to dealing with EU affairs and make recommendations for further research towards this direction.