The papers collected in this special section were first presented in a panel chaired by Oreste Pollicino at the conference “The Venice Commission 1990–2025: Taking Stock of 35 Years for Democracy through Law”, convened by Marta Cartabia, Simona Granata-Menghini, and Davide Paris, and held at Bocconi University on 15–16 May 2025.
Organised to mark the 35th anniversary of the Venice Commission’s establishment, the conference aimed, on the one hand, to foster scholarly debate on the Commission’s contribution to shaping common constitutional standards in Europe and beyond, and, on the other, to provide an occasion for dialogue and exchange between legal scholarship and the Commission itself. The discussion focused on the main challenges currently facing the Venice Commission and on how it can continue to protect and strengthen its role in a world where democracy and the rule of law are increasingly subject to threats and contestation.
The papers in this section reflect the same spirit. They address one of the classical issues with which the Venice Commission has traditionally been confronted—securing the integrity and fairness of electoral processes—in light of the challenges posed by rapidly evolving digital technologies: disinformation campaigns, misuse of personal data, cyberattacks, algorithmic manipulation, and others. Their authors, including two former members of the Venice Commission, acknowledge the importance of the doctrine developed by the Commission in recent years on the impact of digital technologies on electoral processes and call for its further development to safeguard the traditional principles of freedom of expression, electoral integrity, and democratic accountability in the face of the manifold challenges arising from new digital technologies.
A special thanks is due to MediaLaws’ editor-in-chief, Oreste Pollicino, and to deputy editor-in-chief, Marco Bassini, for hosting these contributions and for ensuring their timely publication.