Lecture: Conceptualization of Constitutional Conventions in Central Europe: United in Diversity?

Prof. JUDr. David Kosař, Ph.D., LL.M., J. S. D.

PD Dr. Attila Vincze, LL.M. (Munich)

Masaryk University, Faculty of Law (Czech Republic)

Date: 4.11.2024, 6:00 p.m.
Venue: Room L621, 6th floor | Faculty of Law | Sigmund Freud University | Lassallestraße 3, 1020 Vienna

European civil law countries have generally been considered less keen on embracing constitutional conventions than their common law counterparts. Nevertheless, we know surprisingly little about how constitutional conventions fare when transplanted into different civil law contexts. The literature on this phenomenon is scarce, and if it exists it primarily concerns European consolidated democracies. Legal formalism, a signature feature of post-communist European countries, has until recently suffocated the debate on constitutional conventions in the context of democratization. This has changed in the wake of the rise of populism and abusive constitutionalism in Hungary, Poland, and other Central and Eastern European countries. The abuse of formal institutions by populist leaders have sparked scholarly interest in unwritten rules and informal practices. Yet, little attention has so far been paid to constitutional conventions. This article fills this gap and explores the conceptualization and application of constitutional conventions in four Central European countries, often together referred to as the Visegrad countries, namely Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. We show that constitutional conventions, when transplanted into Central Europe, have received very different interpretations. Despite their shared communist Austro-Hungarian legacies, profound differences have developed regarding not only the conceptualization of constitutional conventions and their justiciability, but also their role in political discourse. This development allows us to provide preliminary thoughts about why this is so.

Please register until 3.11.2024: johannes.steinboeck@jus.sfu.ac.at

Biographies:

David Kosař earned his M.A. in Law at Masaryk University, LL.M. in Human Rights Law at Central European University, and J.S.D. at New York University School of Law. He clerked for a Justice and then the Vice-President of the Supreme Administrative Court, and for a Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. In 2016 he was awarded the ERC Starting Grant to study the effects of judicial self-government (“JUDI-ARCH – The Rise of Judicial Self-Government:Changing the Architecture of Separation of Powers without an Architect”, 2016–2021).

He is the author of “Perils of Judicial Self-Government in Transitional Societies” (CUP, 2016). David has published in American Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Law, International Journal of Constitutional Law, European Constitutional Law Review, Hague Journal of the Rule of Law, German Law Journal, and International Journal of Refugee Law. He is a member of several learned societies (ASIL, ESIL, LSA, ICON-S, ECPR) and the inaugural co-chair of ICON-S CEE Chapter (2018–2021). David’s research interests include constitutional theory, comparative public law, judicial studies, international human rights law, refugee law, and transitional justice.

 

Attila Vincze studied law in Budapest, Heidelberg, and Munich, graduated as JD in Budapest in 2005, earned his LL.M. in German Law and his PhD (doctor iuris) at the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich. He defended his post-doc thesis (Habilitation) at the Wirtschaftsuniversitӓt Wien. After teaching law at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, and at the University of Hull (UK) as a lecturer in law with a focus on European and British public law, he became senior lecturer and later associate professor at the German-speaking Andrassy University of Budapest, and happened to be the Vice-Dean between 2013 and 2016. He joined the Judicial Studies Institute in 2021.

He has around 150 publications in five different languages, is a regular speaker at international conferences, and has been a guest lecturer at different German and Austrian Universities. Besides his academic career, he has gathered considerable practical experiences in public and European law, as well.

 

Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna
Faculty of Law

Address Lassallestrasse 3, 6th floor, 1020 Vienna
Phone 0043 1 4700 104
E-mail jus@sfu.ac.at
Web: https://jus.sfu.ac.at