Bastián González-Bustamante presents two pioneering papers on the rule of law at the 2024 COMPTEXT conference

At the COMPTEXT 2024 conference, which took place from 2 to 4 May at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, our research associate Bastián González-Bustamante presented two innovative papers related to a project funded by the Dutch Research Council.

The first paper: “The Changing Concepts of the Rule of Law”

In the first paper, entitled “The Changing Concepts of the Rule of Law”, our research associate Bastián González-Bustamante and Jarosław Kantorowicz, assistant professor at Leiden University, employ text-as-data methods to analyse how the rule of law has been conceived in parliaments in the United Kingdom and the United States over a century. Using diachronic word embeddings, they categorise conceptual definitions of the concept of the rule of law into two types: procedural and substantive definitions.

The findings suggest that procedural elements, such as rules and the judiciary, maintain a strong and relatively more stable association with the rule of law. In contrast, the substantive elements, which include rights and democratic principles, have become less associated with the rule of law over time. Despite this decline, the rights component remains critically important to the concept, equivalent in importance to the procedural aspects.

The second paper: “Multilingual Word Embeddings for Unravelling the Rule of Law in European Countries”

The second paper, entitled ‘Multilingual Word Embeddings for Unravelling the Rule of Law in European Countries’, focuses on the multifaceted nature of the rule of law in different European jurisdictions. They primarily measure the concept of the rule of law in countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain using multilingual word embeddings. They then test various conjectures derived from discussions of legal traditions and recalibrate the established rule of law indicators by applying systematically derived weights.

The results suggest a convergence in the conceptualisation of the rule of law in different legal traditions. Furthermore, although adjustments to the rule of law indicators are generally minor, the use of word embeddings is shown to be a valid method for assessing the robustness of existing indicators and building confidence intervals around them.

COMPTEXT 2024 Conference

The COMPTEXT 2024 conference was organised at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and brought together researchers and experts in the field of text-as-data analysis. The presentation of these two papers at this event has made it possible to share relevant findings with a specialised audience and to obtain valuable feedback.

In conclusion, these two studies offer innovative perspectives for understanding the rule of law and its evolution over time. We hope these results will contribute to developing more informed and effective public policies in the field of justice and human rights.

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