Reforming the Judicial and Legal Systems in South-Eastern Europe: Sociocultural Context and Consequences of European Union Policy

The paper describes the concept of sociological and legal transformation of the Bulgarian and Romanian judicial system after 1989. The theoretical framework of the study is a combination of concepts, including multiple modernities, historical sociology, and the sociology of law. Both countries are analytically combined into one typologic case. In particular, these countries are characterized by the Orthodox-Byzantine tradition, the legacy of Ottoman rule, and the method of creating national law by implementing the provisions of foreign law. Despite the distinctive features, the development of these countries during the socialism age had some common patterns. However, the rejection of the communist project did not lead to a complete separation from its legacy. Since the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union in 2007, the situation has altered. The paper describes the evolution of approaches to studying the Europeanization of the South-Eastern Europe. It shows that only the positive consequences of this process have been highlighted for a long time, whereas limitations of the EU’s influence on legal reforms in new member states were reported only in rare cases. The study shows that, since the mid-2010s, the researchers have focused on unhealthy influence of EU mechanisms and procedures on the transformation of legal institutions in Bulgaria and Romania, where the rule of law was insufficient at the time of their accession. The analysis identified that rapid reforms led to formal compliance rather than genuine adherence to the rule of law. Although the European Commission’s monitoring of Bulgaria and Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism was officially terminated in 2023, legal frameworks of both countries still have many defects. External legal reforms tend to consolidate the existing social order and governance principles based on the marginalization and instrumentalization of law. It is emphasized that the development of the rule of law system in these societies requires a fundamental change in the system of social relations. The paper concludes that the situation in Bulgaria and Romania shows some general trends in post-communist states associated with congenital errors in the reforms and the choice of their implementation methods.