Enshrining a right to abortion in the constitution – functions and effects of constitutionalisation – the fundamental nature of abortion and its link to core principles of constitutionalism – the instrumental-procedural function of constitutionalisation – limits to protection of abortion rights at the level of the European Court of Human Rights – unpredictability of judicial interpretation of fundamental rights – constitutional design pathways to specify the content and scope of a right to abortion – the potential of the standstill principle

Intrinsic relation between form and substance in law and between the institutional law of the EU and its substantive goals – idea and criteria for a ‘substantive core’ to the legal order – the internal market as early EU law’s substantive core – the EU’s changing policy substance and the subsequent ‘de-coring’ of the legal order – the consequences of de-coring and its impact on EU law’s relevance and legitimacy – early attempts to reconcile EU law with the changing substance of EU policy.

Introduction: the Scruton-Fidesz connection – Literature: Hungary’s rule of law backsliding and the Hungarian constitution – Methods: analysing ideological justifications and contemporary conservatism – Findings: the traditional family as the base for the existence of the nation – Individual rights’ dependency on communal obligations – Constitutional originalism and limitations on judicial review – History as a moral guide and historical revisionism – An exclusionary Hungarian constitutional identity – Analysis: traditionalist conservative values in the Hungarian Constitution and their manipulation – The radicalisation of conservatism – The struggle over the centre-right, and its implications on the future of democracy

Bosphorus doctrine of equivalent protection activated when states implement strict international organisations’ obligations – EU principle of mutual trust requires executing member states to presume issuing member states’ human rights compliance – Presumption influences the Bosphorus doctrine’s application – The European Court of Human Rights drew four relevant scenarios (full discretion; strict obligations; qualified discretion; EU law breach) – Case law consistent with Bosphorus logic but unfair to applicants – Court’s subsequent recalibration of ‘strict obligations’ requirement renders it moot, empties Bosphorus doctrine of its substance and equally undermines mutual trust regimes – Absence of equivalence of mutual trust regimes or EU accession to the ECHR as sole remedies

Constitutionalisation of the decent standard of living in Greece – Euro-crisis and constitutional change – Financial assistance conditionality and minimum income policy – Decent standard of living in crisis jurisprudence

The delegation theory of unconstitutional constitutional amendments, a limited theory of unamendability – Applying a doctrinal approach to justify unconstitutional constitutional amendments – Introducing a typology of unconstitutionality – The practical deficiencies and internal inconsistencies of the delegation theory – The limited role of the doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendments in the Swedish context – The redundancy of constituent power as a legal concept

The challenge of distinguishing between abusive and non-abusive constitutional practices – Main ways of detecting abuse: analyses of intent and effects – Obstacles to detecting bad faith intent in constitutional law – Structured and focused analysis of the effects of abusive constitutionalism: introducing the foreseeable effects test – Normative benchmark: substantial diminishment of accountability – Step 1: probability of harm, analysing the tested constitutional measure’s foreseeable effects on operability and autonomy of an accountability mechanism – Step 2: seriousness of potential harm, analysing the constitutional measure’s effects in the broader constitutional context (including interaction effects) – Step 3: harm mitigation, analysing the existence and adequacy of harm-mitigating safeguards accompanying the constitutional measure – Strengths and limits of the foreseeable effects test

The ‘rights revolution’ and ‘displacement doctrine’ of the European Court of Justice – EU Charter as a yardstick for constitutional review – Constitutional Courts of Austria and Germany: Charter judgment and Right to Be Forgotten II order – Rhetoric, persuasion and eloquence in judicial reasoning

References to the European Convention on Human Rights by Israeli courts – the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights as sources of comparative law – comparative law as technique of legitimation – content analysis of use by domestic courts of European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence – European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence and deference to state

Constitutional referrals by ordinary courts – Judicial dialogue between constitutional courts and ordinary courts – Toolkit for judicial resistance – Novel taxonomy of features and functions of constitutional referrals – Separation of powers approach – Democratic decay – Self-defence mechanism – Mix of methodological approaches – Case study on Czechia

Judicial councils – separation of powers – fourth-branch institutions – judicial independence – four ideal types of judicial councils – a judge-controlled, politician-controlled, inter-branch and fourth-branch judicial council – danger of politicisation and corporativism of the judiciary

The need for a standard of review even during times of crisis – proportionality analysis as the ideal and universally applicable standard of review – the problem of excessive stringency of proportionality analysis during an emergency – the principle of in dubio pro libertate as the cause of the problem – adjusting each component of proportionality analysis to the precautionary principle as the solution – the precautionary application of proportionality analysis strikes a more appropriate balance between excessive stringency and insufficient protection of fundamental rights