On 3 September 2026, the President of the Court, Mattias Guyomar, spoke on a keynote panel on the rule of law and legal resilience at the 2026 European Law Institute Annual Conference, held in Paris. In his opening reflections, he addressed the conference theme, elaborating on how the rule of law can remain resilient, maintain public trust, respond to profound societal, technological and geopolitical changes, and draw strength from culture in all its forms.

President Guyomar highlighted that the resilience of justice is informed and strengthened by the culture around us.

“It can enable our empathy through literature and theatre; free our emotional connections through music and art; and it can directly warn us about what lawless societies, or those subject to rule by law might look like,” the Court President said. 

He also cited concrete examples of initiatives undertaken by the Court to demonstrate the value of culture in communicating the importance of the rule of law also highlighting that the Court’s case-law underlines the need to protect culture.

His intervention was followed by a discussion moderated by legal journalist Joshua Rozenberg with Donal O’Donnell, Chief Justice of Ireland and President of the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Judicial Courts of the Member States of the European Union.