The chapter argues that the Venice Commission has played a unique role in the promotion of the rule of law and in identifying threats to the rule of law. It has done so, first, by helping to define and operationalize the concept and, second, by identifying certain practices that entail an increased risk of the interference with the rule-of-law guarantees.
The paper starts with two general sections that recall certain basic facts about the Venice Commission and it traces the history, within the Council of Europe, of activities relating to the rule of law.