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News/Conferences

Lecture

Institute of State and Law ASCR, Center for Law and Public Affairs (CeLAPA) hold lecture

Julen Etxabe

The Experience of Judgment

Respondent: Zdeněk Kühn

Date: 4. 12. 2014, 14.00 hod

Place: Institute of State and Law ASCR, Národní 18, floor 7th

Registration: agha@ilaw.cas.cz

"In a world populated by multiplicity of voices, perspectives, and normative worldviews, what is the role of courts and how is this role to be imagined? What does it mean to adjudicate a legal case in such pluralist context—and what set of resources (intellectual, emotional,normative, procedural) can a judge rely upon? Can a court lay claim to devising an overarching, homogeneous legal order (e.g., a formal set of human rights valid for all contexts and circumstances)? Should it rather abandon that hope, or replace it with something else? In short, how can judges respond to the demands and complexities of judging in the 21st century? What might its standards of excellence be and with what relation to democracy?"

Julen Etxabe works as a university researcher at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. His research focuses on judicial  dialogues from a comparative perspective and has taught courses on the jurisprudence of human rights, democracy, and normative conflict. Etxabe holds LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees from the University  of Michigan Law School, and a LL.M. degree from the European Academy  of Legal Theory in Brussels. His book The Experience of Tragic  Judgment was published in 2013 by Routledge and has co-edited a  volume entitled Living in a Law Transformed: Encounters with the Works of James Boyd White (Maize Press, 2014). Currenty, Etxabe is  editing a volume on the Cultural History of Law in Antiquity as part  of a series with Bloomsbury. He is also editor of No-Foundations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Law and Justice.

 

https://tuhat.halvi.helsinki.fi/portal/en/persons/julen-etxabe(1d9bf315-f040-4998-a32d-0e518bad9196).html


Lecture

Institute of State and Law ASCR, Center for Law and Public Affairs (CeLAPA) hold lecture

Robert Alexy

Non-Positivistic Concept of Constitutional Rights

 

Date: 17. 12. 2014  14.00 hod

Place: Akademie věd ČR, Národní 3, Praha 1, Room No. 205

Registration: agha@ilaw.cas.cz


Workshop

Institute of State and Law AS CR and Centre for Law and Cosmopolitan Values of the University Antwerp hold the workshop

The Post-political Constellation and European Identity

Antwerp, 25th September 2014

Centre of Cosmopolitan Values, Venusstraat 23, B-2000 Antwerp

What is European identity: a political philosophy or a governmental practice? How can we best understand the concept, and what set of theoretical analyses best sheds light on its contemporary operations? European identity is often conceptualized on universal principles and framed in apparent tension with particularistic nature of national identities based on territory, ethnic and cultural heritage or the nation state. As such, could it act as a form of collective affiliation for different identities and political communities in and across Europe? What about human rights? Could they perhaps form the backbone of a common (European) identity? Would a global commitment to international human rights norms provide enough of a sense of community to sustain a legitimate and sufficiently democratic order?

Our workshop addresses the complex role of and mutual relation between the concepts of democracy, (constitutional) identity, and political and human rights culture. It seeks to explore the potential locations of national constitutional values, their relationship with the text of the European Convention on Human Rights, its function with regard to the judicial reasoning of Member States on issues beyond the confines of national legal systems. In other words it will look into the role of human rights in designing the European project.

10:00 – 10:30 Keynote: Preliminaries to a Theory of Transnational Legal Responsibility

George Pavlakos (University of Antwerp)

11:00 – 11:30 How to "conjure away" State action requirement in human rights claims against non state actors

Pavel Hamerník (Institute of State and Law, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)

Does it make sense to allow breach of human rights by non state actors only because they are not the state? Of course not in modern society but how to enforce the human rights against non state actors? Why should be human rights protected only against the state? Many constitutions are silent about the horizontality of human rights. This contribution indicates on what basis to achieve protection of human rights horizontally and continues discovering this area by other examples since the last appearance on the topic within this project. The Politics of Human Rights: Reaching a Common Understanding

11:30 – 12:00 Recasting the WTO Legitimacy Debate: The Competition Between Democratic Legitimacy and Expert Legitimacy

Irem Kırac (University of Antwerp)

In my presentation, I point out how the WTO is a kind of playfield for the competition between the democratic legitimacy and the expert legitimacy and I argue that the possible optimum solution to increase the legitimacy of WTO is not the competition but the collaboration between these two understandings of legitimacy. The process of globalization adds a new dimension to the legitimacy debate of international organizations notwithstanding the legitimacy and its resources are independently quite complex to discuss under any context. In my work, first of all I give an overview about the legitimacy debate in the case of WTO then discuss on the collaboration between the different resources of legitimacy within the bounds of possibility for optimum solution.

12:00 – 12:30 Secularism and European Identity in the Background of Caselaw on Religious Symbols

Michal Sejvl (Institute of State and Law, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)

On the background of caselaw of ECtHR on religious symbols (esp. cases like Lautsi, Eweida and S.A.S v. France) the author argues that it is possible that European identity based on cosmopolitan values like human rights is overshadowed by the different identity based on more traditional values peculiar to different states, including secularism. It connects this hypothesis with the current public debate in the Czech Republic concerning women's headscarves.

12: 30 – 13:00 The Politics of Human Rights: Reaching a Common Understanding

Petr Agha (University of Antwerp and Institute of State and Law, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)

Any inquiry into the origin, nature, and content of human rights reveals tremendous conceptual hurdles that need to be overcome before one can accept their pre-eminent authority. Unfortunately, human rights are far more complicated phenomena than that. The term human rights is thus used frequently and understood rarely. This paper elaborates on the need for shared values among those who share Europe. The European crisis has increased the call for such values, and also shows that people contest these values. What sort of shared European identity is required for the Union to represent part of a sustainable, just European political and legal order? Which substantive values and beliefs should be shared?


Lecture

Hana Müllerová

Legal regulation of natural resources in the Czech Republic

 

Date: 1. 9. 2014

Place: University of Maribor –  Faculty of Law, Mladinska 9, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia

 

Lectures hold in the frame of the international conference “Workshop on natural resources & role of states and the capital (Limitations of ownership and property due to environmental protection and socio-society reasons)“

 

Program and other information here.


Lecture

Institute of State and Law ASCR, Center for Law and Public Affairs (CeLAPA) and University of Upsala hold lecture

Patricia Mindus

The Functional Correlation Thesis: Some Fundamental Challenges of Citizenship – in the EU and Beyond

Date: 15. 4. 2014

Place: Prague, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7th

Registration: agha@ilaw.cas.cz

Citizenship is a key mechanism of inclusion and exclusion that has attracted growing attention and is destined to become increasingly decisive as international migration is driven up by economic, political, demographic and climate factors. Today some 2,9% of the world population live outside their country of origin; in 2011, 6.6% of the EU27 population was foreign-born, making the EU a fascinating case to study. Yet we know little about the impact of migration on political systems in the long run and the dynamics of citizenship in a cross-national and interdisciplinary perspective. Cutting edge today means developing a framework going beyond the complex legal and technical specificities of single countries to see the big picture. I am interested in designing theory development so as to gain a framework that grasps citizenship by accounting for the different models present in today’s debate.  Indeed, there are different models of citizenship operating in different SSH-fields. These models, merging in today’s debate, can be accounted for by looking at the opposite of citizenry: a citizen is the opposite of the politically powerless subject (political model); the one who does not belong to a given legal order, i.e. both the foreigner and the stateless (legal model); the marginalized or excluded person who does not fully belong to the community (social model). None of these models can singlehandedly work as yardstick for the only ‘true’ citizenship. The core idea is to test the functional correlation between criteria determining access to the status and type of entitlements it consists in. This insight works for all three models: there is a functional correlation at the heart of ‘citizenship’ no matter if legal, political or generally social. I would like to discuss the risks and gains of this approach as well as the plausibility of the theoretical assumptions it builds on.


Lecture

Institute of State and Law ASCR, hold workshop

MORAL ENHANCEMENT

Date: 14. 5. 2014

Place: Prague, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7th

Program zde.


Lecture

Institute of State and Law ASCR, Center for Law and Public Affairs (CeLAPA) hold lecture

Axel Gosseries (Louvain University)

Is Age Discrimination Special?

Date: 17. 7. 2014

Place: Prague, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7th

Registration: agha@ilaw.cas.cz

This paper will critically look at several possible accounts of whether (and to what extent) one may have good reasons to believe that age-based differential treatment should not worry us as much as gender-based or race-based should.


Lecture

Institute of State and Law ASCR, Center for Law and Public Affairs (CeLAPA) hold lecture

Matej Avbelj

Post-modernity of Transnational Law and Legal Pluralism

Date: 11. 4. 2014

Place: Prague, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7th

Registration: agha@ilaw.cas.cz

Matej Avbelj www.avbelj.eu

This paper advocates a unique understanding of legal pluralism conceived of as a principled legal framework. It explains why this conception of legal pluralism best fits in descriptive, explanatory and normative terms the contemporary post-modern legal condition. The latter has come about and is characterized by the outgrowth of law beyond the state and the consequent emergence of a plurality of legal orders, regimes and orderings, which make up the phenomenon of transnational law. Transnational law and its practices have been theoretically approached through different frames, most notably through the lens of constitutionalism. This paper strives to avoid the epistemic turf war of prestige between constitutionalists and pluralists. Rather than dismissing constitutionalism, it does recognize the plausibility of the constitutional accounts in responding to the post-modern legal condition, but shows how and why exactly legal pluralism, conceived of as a principled legal framework, should be preferred over constitutionalism in framing the transnational realm of law.


FRANZ WEYR FELLOWSHIP

 

Emilios Christodoulidis

Constitutionalism and Austerity 

Date: 27. 2. 2014

Ústav státu a práva AV ČR, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7

 

The idea of the Constitution as involving an irreducibly POLITICAL dimension is progressively giving way to a logic of the constitutional as tailored increasingly to the economic priorities of the European Union. This paper is a preliminary attempt to pose the question over what is sacrificed and how to understand the cost of that sacrifice.


Lecture

Hana Müllerová

The right to a favourable environment in the Czech Constitution and its application

27. 11. 2013, 14.00 hod

Univerzita of Antwerpen, Centre for Law and Cosmopolitan Values,  Sint-Jacobstraat 2, 2000 Antwerpen

 

 

Incorporating the human right to a favourable environment in the Czech constitutional Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms dates back to 1993. However, this right remains very rarely applied, due to several legislative and interpretative reasons. In her contribution, Hana Müllerová will introduce the cornerstone cases before the Czech Constitutional Court that helped to establish the current judicial interpretation of the right but that at the same time led to entombing its practical enforcement. She will reflect the merit of human rights related directly to environmental quality as such and the preconditions that seem to be crucial in order to have this human right representing the so called third generation of human rights a living part of the human rights legislation. 


Hans Kelsen Annual Lecture

Institute of State nad Law CAS, Center for Law and Public Affairs holds

Mathias Kumm

The Foundations of Law in Europe and the Problem of Constitutional Conflict

The question of the foundations of law is not one that is merely of academic interest. Even though a great many practical questions in law appear to be resolved without reference to foundational questions, there are problems that can´t be resolved without implicitly or explicitly addressing them. One such problem is the problem of constitutional conflict. How should national constitutional courts address conflicts between national constitutions and requirements of European Union law? The lecture will explore different claims about the foundations of law in Europe by way of analyzing the jurisprudence of some of Europe´s highest courts as they engage issues of constitutional conflict and relate these to classical positions in jurisprudential debates of the 20th century (Hart, Kelsen, Schmitt, Dworkin). It will provide an answer the following questions: To what extent is there space for legitimate legal pluralism in Europe? To what extent must a state, including a national constitutional court, accept the iron cage of European legal discipline? If the foundational values in Europe are human rights, democracy and the rule of law, as Art. 2 TFEU claims, what is the role of national identity, statehood and sovereignty?

Date: December 16, 2013

Venue: Academy of Sciences, Národní 1009/3, Prague 1 


Colloquium

Institute of State nad Law CAS, Center for Law and Public Affairs, and University of Antwerpen hold the colloquium

Subsidiarity and Its Discontents

 

Subsidiarity is a widely applicable concept. It has been referred to in various ways for several fields of law and it assumes different functions in each area of law. The principle is increasingly referred to by current human rights scholarship, as a tool to address some of the current problems prevailing in the implementation of the European Convention on Human rights. And whereas most scholars agree that the principle should apply in human rights law, there is still much difference as to the exact scope and field of application of this principle.

The Colloquium aims to examine the various forms subsidiarity in different fields of national and international human rights law. We also welcome critical and theoretical analysis of the concepts underlying the principle. The Colloquium will assess whether subsidiarity is really able to provide an adequate answer to the current challenges the European polity faces.

 

Date: December 18, 2013

Venue: Centre for Law and Public Affairs, Institute of State and Law, Národní 18, Praha 1

 

For registration please contact Petr Agha at agha@ilaw.cas.cz


workshop

Workshop

 

The Institute of State and Law holds an expert meeting

 

„Public participation in environmental decision-making: Implementation of the Aarhus Convention“

 

The workshop takes place in 16 – 17 May 2013 in the Instute of State and Law CAS, Národní 18, Prague 1. The event is being organized in cooperation with our partner institutions of Academies of Sciences of Slovakia, Poland and Hungary and with participation of guests from Italy and Montenegro, as a part of a project supported by the Visegrad Internatinal Fund.

 

You can find more information on the project and the full program of the workshop - www.ilaw.cas.cz/aarhus.


lecture

Institute of State and Law AS CR invites you to the lecture with a following discussion

prof. dr. Ivana Jelić

"Human Rights and Multiculturalism: A Montenegro Perspective"

Place: Prague, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7th

Date: May 15th 2013, at 2 p.m.

 

The speaker is the Extraordinary (Associate) Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, with the specialization in Public International Law and Human Rights Law.

The lecture will be given in English (without interpretation).

To attend the lecture, please register at the akce@ilaw.cas.cz.

 


Conference

Institute of State and Law AS CR and Centre for Law and Cosmopolitan Values of the Univerzity Antwerp hold the conference

The Justification of Political Authority

Antwerp, 7th December 2012

Centre of Cosmopolitan Values, Venusstraat 23, B-2000 Antwerp

Democracy and the Rule of Law, two of the key justifications for political authority, have in recent years come under a lot of pressure. As the financial crisis in Europe persists it exposes the political shortcomings of the European model of governance. Should one take these signs as proof of how fragile and inconsistent democracy and the rule of law may be, with many of their facets displaying signs of exhaustion? What are we to do in such times? Should we defend the traditional rules and procedures and try recovering the core ideas of democracy and the rule of law, in search of their original meaning; or should we, instead, look for novel approaches, better suited to respond to the challenges of the contemporary world and leave the traditional rules and procedures behind?
At the center of this conference is the engagement with the question of how democracy is still possible in an age that appears “post-political”. Perhaps we may distinguish between two practices of democracy: a) one that takes it to dictate top-down solutions, simply legitimising what (some not so democratic) politics decides and another b) that remains reflective by questioning and reapplying constantly the normative question how to live a good life in the polis? We see this reflective attitude as best realising democracy and we seek to question how this reflective attitude can materialise in a newly configured world. Is reflexibility the most importnant condition for authority to remain legitimate? We will consider the institution of judicial review in which the constitutional courts find themselves in the centrepiece of the flux of these developments, charged with the duty to protect as well as reflect. We will query what the courts might be claiming when they claim the authority to strike down laws passed by the legislative assemblies. We will question how such claims to authority might be justified. Moreover, we will consider whether this practice conflicts with or helps to further democracy’s underlying value when such authority seems to be justified only insofar as it realizes democratic values.
We invite submissions that will address these concerns particularly with regard to arguments for justifying political authority and obligation, namely the role played by human rights and political activity in the building of the polis. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words as an email attachment to petr.agha@centrum.cz before November 15, 2012.

Program:

9-30 – 10-00  Introduction and Welcome

10-00 – 11-30 KEY-NOTE LECTURE

Constituent Power - A nightmare of post-national Europe? --- Priban Jiri (Cardiff University)

European integration traditionally was based on a mixture of systemic rationalities of economy, law and administration. The most recent example of the Lisbon Treaty firmly follows in footsteps of this logic but claims to enhance both efficiency and democratic legitimacy at EU level. The Union’s democratic deficit has been recognized by lawmakers who now promise democratization of the EU’s political system. Semantic inventions of the last decade, such as ‘constitutionalism without constituent power’, ‘executive federalism’ and ‘post-sovereign community’, subsequently need to be reassessed. Instead of the common public domain full of perky citizens and activists campaigning all over the Union and bringing common policies to the doorstep of all citizens of EU, we have further progressive integration facilitated by different systems of EU. Our commonality is defined by systemic, not symbolic rationality. It, therefore, is necessary to rethink the project of ‘ever closer Union’ in light of systemic rationality part of which is ‘ever more functionally differentiated Europe’.

 11-30 – 12-45 Session 1 (Chair Pavlakos George)

European Constitutional Pluralism: Whose Authority? Which Obligation? --- Goldoni Marco (University of Glasgow)

One of the most pressing issues for European constitutionalism concerns the conflict between authorities at the supranational and national levels. As the nature of the European compact is not clear (both federal and intergovernamental), the question of authority remains open as both the ECJ and national constitutional courts claim to be the true authoritative guardians of their respective constitutions. As known, constitutional pluralism has offered an elaborate and intriguing answer to this problem. In the first part of this paper, I will reconstruct which conception of authority is put forward by constitutional pluralist , and whether this is compatible with classic positivist or institutionalist theories of authority. In the second part of the paper, I will test how much pluralism  can be granted by this theory and I will take as a test case the idea that constitutional pluralism allows for a certain margin of so called institutional civil disobedience.

 

The dynamics between national and supranational fundamental rights protection in Europe: a practice of convergence? --- Lambrecht Sarah (University of Antwerp)

Criticism towards the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and its case law has been on the rise. Criticism has been voiced by judges, academics, the (tabloid) press and politicians questioning certain specific decisions by the ECtHR and even its fundamental legitimacy. These criticisms, founded on a variety of arguments, have been translated by politicians, on the one hand, into a policy change. This is most noticeable in the UK, where Euro-sceptic politicians have been focusing on reforming both the national as well as the European level of rights protection with a purpose of shielding the nation from too much influence of the ECtHR. On the other hand, this has been translated by supreme domestic courts through defining their relationship with the ECtHR in certain (high profile) judgments.

For this presentation I would like to focus on the different criticisms put forward by politicians, on the one hand, and domestic courts, on the other hand, and analyse to what extent there is an overlap in voiced arguments. Secondly, I intend to evaluate these criticisms and the responses put forward by the ECtHR and certain ECtHR judges, as well as the recent reform (proposals) of the Convention system following the Brighton, Izmir and Interlaken conferences. Specific attention will be paid to the draft proposals of Protocol 15 and 16 of the Convention.

12-45 – 14-00 LUNCH BREAK

14 -00 – 15-45  Session 2 (Chair Priban Jiri)

AUTHORITY AS ENFORCEABILITY: A SHIFT OF PERSPECTIVE ON EXPLANATIONS OF LAW-COMPLIANCE --- Gkouvas Triantafyllos (University of Antwerp)

On a standard conception of political or legal authority, the law through the mediation of its enforcement mechanisms is assigned with the task of telling people what to do. To many this may sound as too weak a premise to be hesitant to endorse. What I would like to argue for is that this is actually a very strong premise mainly because it entails a very controversial view of the normativity of law. To this effect I will try to embed the distinctive practical guidance associated with law in what I will call a ‘nomological conception’ of authority according to which legal norms are such that they must be capable of normatively explaining their instances by themselves. This is precisely the intuition that permeates primarily positivist accounts of legal normativity as it is evidenced by Joseph Raz’s theory of preemptive reasons or Scott Shapiro’s planning theory of law. By sharp contrast, I would like to suggest that there is a better alternative to the nomological conception that treats actions instantiating relations of authority as ways of constituting spheres of free agency. This constitutive conception I aim to defend is premised on the idea that manifestations of authority are manifestations of enforceability. The latter is a disposition that is highly relevant for our understanding of the practice of legal authority, or so I shall argue. If we accept this reduction, there emerges an alternative option that allows for authoritatively prescribed actions to be explained in terms that do not necessitate any reference to the normative reasons authority-complying agents actually have. That being the case, it may be possible to switch our perspective on relations of political authority by treating as an irreducibly normative concept.

The Throne is Empty: The Concept of People as a Legitimacy for Contemporary Democracies --- SEJVL Michal (Academy of Sciences, Institute of State and Law)

Using the theories of Giorgio Agamben (esp. his “Kingdom and Glory”) the presentation will forcus on the concept of People. Various conceptions of People will be presented (e.g. abstract People, organic People, People as a source of pouvoir constitué and at the same time of pouvoir constituant), the necessity of not only mechanism of power (Kingdom), but also the symbolic aspect of power (Glory) will be dealt with and Agamben's metaphor of “empty throne” will be used to conclude: That in the similar way like Christians are looking forward for the second coming of Christ, contemporary democracies are looking forward for the coming of People.

Cupio dissolvi: politics and law in neoliberal times --- Croce Mariano (Sapienza University of Roma)

In this paper I will be concerned with the far-reaching changes that are affecting both the political and the legal field in today’s global scenario. The rise of some striking phenomena – such as the widespread penetration of neoliberal rationality (which carries with itself new political narratives) and the creolisation of the legal field (favoured by so-called legal pluralism) – is altering the nature of traditional political authority. Even though there seem to be no evident links between such phenomena, they are signs of a deep metamorphosis of both politics and law. This metamorphosis urges these two domains to combine in a renewed and unprecedented form of collaboration. The hypothesis I will put forward is that the collapse of the traditional integration between law and politics is bringing about the self-displacement of politics and the migration of legal powers. In the wake of this process, Western politics ends up serving as both the cradle and the vehicle of a driving force of homogenisation and standardisation. In this new framework, national policies appear as baskets of short-term answers to problems that domestic political institutions are no longer able to face and the law as a technique-technology in the hands of restricted, autonomous and well-organised sectors of society.

Antigone and her Nomos --- Agha Petr (Academy of Sciences, Institute of State and Law)

This paper reads Sophocles’ Antigone as an exploration not just of the politics of lamentation but of a larger conflicts these stand for. Each economy of mourning (symbolic economy) sees the other as excessive and politically unstable. In this essay, I read Antigone’s burial of her brother (but also other actions of hers) as a performance of objections to the city’s democracy (the legislation in place). Creon on this reading represents not sovereignty run amok but the fifth-century democratic polis that appropriated funerary certain funerry practices that suited the needs of the polis. Together, Antigone and Creon play out the political and psychic costs of profoundly political changes. Through the issue of funerary practice, Sophocles’s Antigone explores conflicts between different conceptions of justice. Indeed, Antigone’s act exposes the injustice of the Law. The tension I would like to explore is between on the one hand the multiplicity of social positions that depend on fixed categories or structural necessity, and ‘singular universality’ on the other hand and how the dissenting individuals and their “alternative nomoi” challenge the legitimacy of the incumbent regimes and of symbolic orders.

15 -45 -16-15  Coffee Break

16-15 – 17-45  Session 3 (Chair Patricia Popelier)

ON MARKET RATIONALITY AND THE PROSPECTS OF DEMOCRACY Or why we may all be Greeks soon… --- Bartl Marija (University of Amsterdam)

The perspective taken by this article is provoked by the recent article ‘Love or nothing: The real Greek parallel with Weimar, which should prompt the reflection about the normative basis of law, and our commitment to rule of law, in a globalized world. That article portrays the impacts of growing unemployment in Greece, and profound changes in the Greek political landscape: the majority of Greeks are withdrawing from the ‘political’ into the ‘private’, leading to rapid de-politicisation and de-democratisation of the society, while leaving the streets today (and steering tomorrow) to the socio-political extremes. This scenario reminds of yet another historical epoch – epoch, which we all want to avoid in the future.

If we step over ascribing the responsibility to the Greeks themselves, or concentrating on the reasons of economic crisis, we find two levels of governance that are directly involved in the economic governance of Greece: the EU and the global financial and economic institutions. Those are actively engaged in the economic governance of Greece – yet, little voice is given to the Greeks themselves, with potentially catastrophic consequences as the article corroborates.  If this does not surprise at the global level, we Europeans should be asking ourselves, how is it possible that this is the case also in the EU? After so much effort invested into the democratisation of the EU, the situation has even aggravated –  which was once described as a ‘democratic deficit’, today becomes already the democratic ‘default’. And which (negative) lessons can be drawn from the democratisation of the most ‘politically advanced’ trade regime for other forms of regional trade integration, or for that matter the global trade regime?

A Comparative Look at Selected Grounds of Judicial Review in Public and Private Sector --- Hamerník Pavel  (Academy of Sciences, Institute of State and Law)

The judicial review in modern era controls the acts of the executive, resp. governmental power at national level or even at international level like EU system of judicial review. Another piece to mosaic of judicial review is brought by private sector. In some cases in private sector there are decisions which also affect public interest and livelihood of individuals. This brings the question whether the source or the nature of activities are relevant for use of judicial review mechanism. We can speak about horizontality of protection of human rights too. Are there variations of judicial review in this sense concerning the control of the legality and procedural fairness? This presentation brings in description of various cases of judicial review at national or European level, including specific question of above mentioned horizontality. For example Council of Europe and UNESCO countries de facto delegated (or gave up) powers to rulemaking and policymaking in doping to experienced sports associations which adopted World Anti-Doping Code and provisions of this Code affect the stakeholders and participants in area of professional sports. In other words, the judicial review seems to be at a direction that State action is not exclusively at stake but other models of control develop. We witness variations of judicial review in national or European level.

Tensions between judicial review and democracy. A deliberative  approach --- Álvarez Aída Araceli Patiño (Università degli Studi di Milano)

The relationship between democracy and judicial review is indeed immersed in a major theoretical issue. The problem that pervades discussion is determining exactly the way law – in particular constitutional law - and politics relate to each other. Therefore, considerable tensions rise between constitutionalism and democracy on the one hand and between the various ways of achieving these ideals in political institutions and practices on the other.

Theories about judicial review must reconcile two propositions, i.e. courts must maintain the supremacy of the constitution as positive law without inhibiting democracy. This tension between law and democracy can be grouped into two types: a conceptual and an institutional one. This paper deals with and elaborates on the tension at the institutional level, particularly the one between democratic representatives vs. constitutional judges. This tension describes the way judicial review thwarts the will of the majority when it declares as unconstitutional laws or acts issued by democratic representatives. This objection rests on three premises, namely: the judges’ lack of legitimacy, the assumption that the court has the ‘last word’ and the subjectivity of judicial interpretation.

The available literature in both legal and political constitutionalism indicates that the reconciliation or co-existence of both sides of these tensions seems to depend more on the understanding of democracy. Finally, it is concluded that deliberative democracy seems to be a plausible theory that can defuse this apparently unresolved theoretical tension because it locates the activity of judges not in the centre of the political system, but as one that interconnects personal and public autonomy.


Conference

Institute for Social Sciences - Institute for Legal Studies, Hungarien Academy of Sciences and Institute of State and Law, Academy of Science of the CR hold the conference

Historical and Written Constitutions: Past and Present

under the Auspices of Prof. Dr. Péter Paczolay CSc., President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court.

Budapest, 27th November 2012

Institute for Legal Studies of the HAS, Conference Room, 2nd Floor, Room No. 28,

1014 Budapest, Országház u. 30.

 

PROGRAMME

 

9. 00. – 9.30.

Prof Dr. Vanda Lamm DSc., Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Prof. Dr. Péter Paczolay CSc., President of the Constitutional Court of Hungary

 

1st Session

9.30 – 11. 10.

Chairman:

Dr. habil. Tamás Nótári PhD.(Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences – KRE Budapest)

 

Prof. Dr. Zoltán Szente DSc.(Faculty of Law, University of István Széchenyi, Győr)

The doctrine of the Holy Crown in the Historical Constitution of Hungary

 

Dr. habil. Iván Halász PhD - Dr. Gábor Schweitzer PhD (Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences – NKE - ELTE, Budapest)

The Hungarian Historical Constitution as a Legislative Procedure and Material Law

 

JUDr. Michal Šejvl PhD (Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)

From Written Constitution Towards Organic Constitution? The Case of the Czech Republic

 

JUDr. Petr Agha PhD (Institute of the State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)

Organic Constitution: What Should We Do with Our Constitution?

 

2nd Session 11.30. – 13. 10.

Chairman:

Dr. Balázs Fekete PhD (Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences – PPKE Budapest)

 

JUDr. Vilém Knoll PhD (Faculty of Law, West Bohemian University, Plzeň)

The Bohemian Confederation A. D. 1619 – the Experience of the Feudal Czech

Written Constitution

 

Doc. JUDr. Karel Schelle CSc. – JUDr. Renata Veselá PhD. (Faculty of Law, Masaryk University, Brno)

The Historical State Law Program and the Czech Policy in the 19th Century.

 

Dr. habil. Tamás Nótári PhD. (Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences – KRE Budapest)

Cum Dignitate Otium – Basic Values int he Cicero’s Theory of State

 

Dr. György Képes PhD (Faculty of Law, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)

Written Constitutions in the Scandinavian Monarchies in the 19th Century

 

13.10. Discussion and Farewell


Discussion panel

On 29th of October Institute of State and Law shall host the Group of experts meeting concerning the issue of possible establishment of Arbitration Court for Sport for the Czech republic. Discussion panel will focus on this question in the light of experiences of Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which was established by Olympic movement in Lausanne. Mainly the status of the tribunal, its jurisdiction and process will be the main content of discussions and whether the potential of existence of the new sports tribunal is possible at all in current sports model in the Czech republic.

The meeting is not open to public.


workshop

Institute of State and Law ASCR hold workshop

Subjects of protection of human rights.

The workshop taked place in Liblice (Czech Republic) from 11th to 12th of June 2012.


Conference

Centre for Law and Cosmopolitan Values - University of Antwerp and Centre of Excellence in Foundations of European Law and Polity - University of Helsinki and Institute of State and Law ASCR hold 7.5.2012 in Helsinki the international conference

The Margin of Appreciation and Cultural Diversity in Europe.

List of participants:

Ján Šikuta, ECtHR; Päivi Hirvelä, ECtHR; Jiří Pribáň, Cardiff University; Lorenzo Zucca, Kings College London; Steven Greer, University of Bristol; Dominic McGoldrick, University of Liverpool; Petr Agha, Institute of Stata nad Law ASCR; Jarna Petman, University of Helsinki; Massimo Fichera, University of Helsinki; Dorota Gozdecka, University of Helsinki


Conference international

Institute of State and Law and Faculty of Law UWB hold international law conference

Metamorphoses of Law in Central Europe III. - Quo vadis Central Europe?

The conference taked place in Loucký klášter (Louka monastery) in Znojmo (Czech Republic) from 27th to 29th of June 2012.

More www.ilaw.cas.cz/metamorphoses


Workshop

Institute of State and Law hold

Workshop of Medical Law and Bioethic / Workshop medicínského práva a bioetiky: Informovaný souhlas - střet bioetického a právního pojetí?

Date and place: May 22, 2012, meeting room, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7.

More akce@ilaw.cas.cz


Researcher elected to U.N. ILC

The Czech Republic has its representative in the U.N. International Law Commission after more than ten years as the U.N. General Assembly elected Pavel Sturma to the post on Thursday, the permanent Czech mission to the U.N. has told CTK.

More...


Workshop

Institute of State and Law hold

Workshop of Medical Law: The health legislation - progress or uncertainty? / Workshop medicínského práva a bioetiky: Nová zdravotnická legislativa - pokrok či nejistota?

Date and place: November 22, 2011, meeting room, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7.

Programme: 9.00-9.30 hod registration, 9.30-15.30 papers, 15.30 discussion.

More akce@ilaw.cas.cz.


International workshop

Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic with participation Institute for Legal Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences holds the international workshop

 

Citizens and Denizens[1]: The State and Immigration and Asylum Policy

 

Date: 11th November 2011

Place: Institute of State and Law CAS, Národní 18, Praha 1, conference room, 7th floor

 

Program:

 

14.00 – 15.00

 

Opening speech

Jan Bárta, director of the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences

 

Part 1: Citizens and Denizens

 

Michal Šejvl, Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences:

The Others: Denizens in Philosophy and Political Science

 

Károly Kisteleki, Hungarian Academy of Sciences:

National Profile of the Hungarian Citizenship

 

Pavel Hamerník, Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences:

Citizenship of the Union and Third Country Nationals

 

the Discussion

 

15.00 – 15.15  coffee break

 

15.15 – 16.30

Part 2: Policy of Asylum and Immigration: The Past and Present

 

Antonín Lojek, Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences:

Right of Asylum During the Formation Period of Modern States - A Short Historical Excursion

 

Ivan Halász, Institute of Legal Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Corvinus University of Budapest:

Migration and Elections: Theoretical and Practical Dilemmas

 

Bohumil Hnídek, Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Nataša Chmelíčková, Ministry of Interior:

Common European Asylum System and Its Implementation in the Czech Republic

 

the General Discussion

 

The Working Language: English



[1] Denizens is the term from political science that signifies non-citizens (usually third country nationals) who are usually long-term residents in the country that deny them the right of citizenship. Denial – hence, denizens.


Workshop

Institute of State and Law ASCR organizes on November 7th 2011

Workshop on Sports Law concerning Procedural Aspects of Resolving Disputes in Sport/Workshop sportovního práva na téma procesní otázky řešení sporů v rámci sportovních asociací

Topics of the workshop include:

- Questions of Parallel existence of general law (International law, EU law, state law) and so called autonomous global sports law.

- Application of public law principles in front of tribunals of Sports Associations (Fair Trial, Criminal Law principles in Disciplinary proceedings etc.) or in front of an appellate body like Court of Arbitration for sport (CAS).

- Standing in proceedings in front of Sports tribunals.

- Other questions concerning resolution of disputes in sport.

Workshop is organized by Pavel Hamerník, Vladimír Balaš. Contact hamernik@ilaw.cas.cz. Venue: Národní 18, Prague 1, 7th floor,  from 9:00 till 15:00.


Conference

Institute of State and Law ASCR in cooperation with Faculty of Law UPJS in Kosice holds the international conference

LAW-BUSINESS-ECONOMY

in 26 - 28th October 2011 in Strbske Pleso. More information e-mail regina.palkova@upjs.sk


World Congres

The World Jurist Association organizes

24th biennal Congress on the Law of the World

NATIONAL LEGAL CULTURE IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD

in 23 - 28th of October 2011 in Prague. The Institute of State and Law ASCR is a partner of the congress.

More www.worldjurist.org 


International workshop

Institute of State and Law ASCR in cooperation with Institute of State and Law of SAS, Bratislava, Institute of Law Studies of the PAS, Warszawa, and Institute of Legal Studies of HAS, Budapest, with the kind support of International Visegrad Fund organizes international scientific workshop

Metamorphoses of Law in the Visegrad countries.

in 28th of June - 29th of June 2011 in Znojmo.


Workshop

Institute of State and Law hold

Workshop of Medical Law. Ethical and Legal Issues in Medical Research. / Workshop medicínského práva a bioetiky na téma "Etické a právní aspekty lékařského výzkumu".

Date and place: May 31, 2011, meeting room, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7.

Programme: 9.00-9.30 hod registration, 9.30-15.30 papers, 15.30 discussion.

More akce@ilaw.cas.cz.


Lecture

The Lecture of prof. Frederick Lazin (Department of Government, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer - Sheva, Israel, Department of Israel Studies, American University, Washington, D.C., USA)

Jews in American Politics: The Case of Struggle for  Soviet Jewry in American Politics; Contemporary issues in Israel Politics.

Date: February 24, 2011, at 11.00 

Place: the meeting room of the Institute, Národní 18, Prague 1, floor 7.


Meeting

Czech Banking Association in the cooperation with the Institute of State and Law and PRK Partners hold

the discussion meeting with prof. Karel Eliáš, author of new Czech Civil Code.

Date and place: February 21, 2011, the meeting room of the Institute, floor 7.

The meeting is closed.


Scientific Meeting

The scientific meeting on the theme the environmental law held on January 31, 2011, in 14.00.

 

Programme:

 

1. section – grant project "Legal Protection Animals and welfare - international, community, national aspects.“ – JUDr. Hana Müllerová, Ph.D. (ISL) a JUDr. Vojtěch Stejskal, Ph.D. (FL UC in Prague),

 

2. section – "Actual issues of legal protection of biodiversity" – JUDr. Vojtěch Stejskal, Ph.D. (FL UC in Prague),

 

3. section - discussion.


Lecture

The lecture of dr. Ivan Halasz (Institute of Legal Studies of the Hungarien Academy of Sciences) hold December 1, 2010, in 14.00 in the meeting room of the Institute on the theme New Constitution of the Hungarian Republic.


International conference

Faculty of Law P.J.Šafárika in Košice in the cooperation with Institute of State and Law of the CAS give the international conference

Obchodní právo a jeho širší kontexty/ Commercial Law and its wider context

 

Date and place: October 26.-28, 2010, in the hotel Patria, Štrbské Pleso.


workshop

Institute of State and Law CAS hold

WORKSHOP OF MEDICAL LAW/ MEDICÍNSKÉHO PRÁVA  a následné diskusní fórum k aktuálním otázkám právní odpovědnosti ve zdravotnických pracovníků z pohledu soukromého práva v ČR i EU.

 

Date and place: November 5, 2010, meeting room, Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7.

Programme: 9.00-9.30 hod registration, 9.30-14.30 papers, 14.30 discussion.

Workshop is composed as a formal opportunity of medical law experts to get together. The schedule shall be particularly focused on the topical problems of liability of medical work.


OPEN DOOR OF THE INSTITUTE

Place: Národní 18, Praha 1, floor 7
Date: November 4, 2010, 10:00–15:00
Contact: tel.: 221 990 711, e-mail: ilaw@ilaw.cas.cz


International Conference

The Institute of Legal Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of the State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the CR hold the international conference

Symbolical Aspects of the Continuity and Discontinuity of State and Law in Central Europe.

Date and place: 21.9.2010, Budapest 

Programme:

1st Session

Chairman: Dr. Gábor Schweitzer PhD (Institute for Legal Studies of the HAS, Budapest)

Dr. habil. Tamás Nótári PhD (Institute for Legal Studies of the HAS, Budapest) Translatio imperii - Continuity of Empires in European Political Traditions

Dr. Iván Halász PhD (Institute for Legal Studies of the HAS, Budapest) Preambles of the Central European Constitutions and Their Symbolism

JUDr. Vít Šťastný (Institute of the State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague) Continuity and Discontinuity of Titles of Supreme State Organs in the European Countries of Communist Bloc with the Special Attention Paid to the Situation in Czechoslovakia

2nd Session

Chairman: Dr. Gábor Schweitzer PhD (Institute for Legal Studies of the HAS, Budapest

JUDr. Tomáš Pezl (Faculty of Law University of West Bohemia, Pilsen) Is the Czech Republic Really a Successor of Pre-war Czechoslovakia? Issue of Continuity of Czechoslovakia Through the Second World War

Dr. Károly Kisteleki PhD (Secretariat of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Department for Economy and Law, Budapest) Continuity and Discontinuity in the History of the Hungarian Citizenship

JUDr. Michal Šejvl PhD (Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague) The Changing Role of State: State as a Mirror of Individual?

Discusion and farewell


mezinárodní konference Znojmo

Insitute of State and Law of the CAS and Faculty of Law UWB in Pilsen hold the international conference

 

METAMORFÓZY PRÁVA VE STŘEDNÍ EVROPĚ II. Dvacet let poté/Metamorphoses of Law in the Central Europe II. Twenty Years After

 

Date: 9. - 11.6.2010

Place: Znojmo, Loucký klášter

 

The conference “Law Metamorphoses II” purports to advance in the attempt to identify the main trends and problems in the area of law in the central Europe. Law belongs to the fundamental pillars of a progressive democratic state. We may observe a corruption increase, contempt of law even on the level of the highest state bodies, unqualified law-making, abuse of power by state administration, frauds in legal education, racially-oriented attacks, citizens´ growing distrust of the options of law enforcement etc. The main objective of the forthcoming conference is to search for the causes of these negative phenomena, designate them and primarily propose measures which would strengthen the role of law in our society.  

 

More konferenceznojmo@ilaw.cas.cz

 

In the same time

 

Metamorfózy veřejné správy II. aneb reforma po dvaceti letech/Metamorphoses of Public Administration

 

The colloquium focus on the public sector metamorphoses during the last twenty years and on the impulses brought about by the changing paradigm of the free market economy.


Conference

Institute of State and Law gave on April 4, 2010 in the conference room of the Academy of Sciences, Národní 3, Prague 1, No. 205 the conference

PARLAMENTNÍ DEMOKRACIE VERSUS ÚSTAVNOST/ Parliamentary Democracy Versus Compliance with the Constitution

There was a discussion concerning three topics embodied in the recent decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Administrative Court regarding the conflict of two decision-making principles. The form of a presented discussion enabled touching upon some broader questions which have been opened by these decisions.

Programme:

I. The sovereignty of the Czech Republic and the Lisbon Treaty.

II. Parliamentary democracy versus compliance with the Constitution; the substantial core of the Constitution or what is a constitutional law?

III. The abolition of political parties; Self-defence of democracy.


Scientific Meeting

Institute of State and Law in the cooperation with the Institute of Legal Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institue of Legal Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences give the international scientific meeting on the theme 

 

Ústava a ústavní soudy ve středoevropské perspektivě / The Constitutional and Constitutional Courts in the Central European Perspective 

 

Date and place: February 2, 2011, the meeting room of Institute of State and Law, Národní 18, Prague 1, 7. patro.

 

Moderator: JUDr. PhDr. Zdeněk Masopust, DrSc.

 

Programme:

 

JUDr. Jan Bárta, CSc., first words of the director

prof. dr hab. Jan Wawrzyniak: Evolution and structure of the Polish Constitutional Court/

Ewolucja struktury i funkcjonowania Trybunału Konstytucyjnego w Polsce

JUDr. Eduard Barány, DrSc.: Jurisdiction of the Slovak Constitutional Court/

Právomoc Ústavného súdu Slovenskej republiky a typy konaní pred ním

Dr. Ivan Halász, Ph.D.: Hungarian Constitutional Court - tommorow and today/Ústavny súd Maďarskej republiky včera a dnes: dilémy a perspektívy jeho kompetencií

JUDr. Michal Šejvl, Ph.D.: Politické otázky v rozhodování ústavních soudů

prof. dr hab. Wojciech Sokolewicz: Subsydiarność procedur i instytucji demokracji bezpośredniej w prawie polskim - na tle konstytucjonalizmu współczesnego

doc. JUDr. Josef Blahož, DrSc.: Problémy ústavně soudního aktivismu a pasivismu

Dr Michal Ziólkowski: Ku konstytucjonalizmowi europejskiemu: kilka uwag na tle wyroków sądów konstytucyjnych w sprawie Traktatu z Lizbony

JUDr. Jan Malíř, Ph.D.: Příběh čarodějova učně? Kontrola ústavnosti ústavních zákonů ve Střední Evropě ve světle klasického konstitucionalismu

JUDr. Jiří Grospič, CSc.: Ústavněprávní principy a jejich vzájemné vztahy ve světle srovnávacího ústavního práva, jakož i jejich význam pro judikaturu Ústavního soudu. Poznámky k neústavnosti nálezu Ústavního soudu rušícího ústavní zákon o zkrácení volebního období Poslanecké sněmovny

prof. dr hab. Maria Kruk-Jarosz: Mandat przedstawicielski w okresie transformacji ustrojowej

Dr Jerzy Rychlik: Status posła (polskiego) do Parlamentu Europejskiego

JUDr. Vít Šťastný: Připravovaná elektronická Sbírka zákonů a elektronický legislativní proces a jeho vliv na parlamentní proceduru přijímání zákonů a na Ústavní soud