Conference
organised by the
Institute for Legal Studies, Centre for Social Sciences
in collaboration with
re:constitution
Rule of Law, Resilience and Erosion
The Interplay Between Institutional Design and Everyday Practice
12-14 October 2022.
Institute for Legal Studies, Centre for Social Sciences
Budapest, Hungary
(with the possibility to participate via zoom)
Concept
The conference concerns the institutional prerequisites of the resilience of the rule of law. The rule of law can be threatened and eroded by several, often overlapping forces. On the one hand, the instrumentalization of the law has long been viewed as a threat to law’s integrity and legitimacy. Yet the need for rule of law should not lead to stasis: law shall also retain its flexibility in order to respond efficiently to regulatory challenges. This tension between flexibility and integrity has long been a dominant topic in theoretical reflections of both the rule of law and the Rechtsstaat traditions since the emergence of the modern administrative state. Yet this literature, mostly tailored as a liberal-conservative critique of the regulatory and the welfare state, might be ill-suited to respond to recent new forms of instrumentalization, such as the legal system or indeed the constitution being constantly changed via tools such individualized and omnibus legislation, to pursue short-term political gains. The conference aims to provide a theoretical reflection on old and new forms of instrumentalization and discuss the institutional prerequisites of the resilience of the rule of law under such threats.
On the other hand, not only the legal system itself needs to be resilient under such threats, but also its everyday administration. Instrumentalization can proceed through formal legal changes to the law, but also via instrumentalization of the administrative and judicial process. Such interventions also need to be carefully balanced, however, in order not to destroy law’s legitimacy. There is a considerable body of literature in comparative constitutional law, legal sociology and legal anthropology, utilizing a wide variety of theoretical approaches, that successfully and convincingly challenged the notion that law is purely instrumental and that the judiciary completely lacks autonomy even in overtly autocratic and authoritarian states. On the contrary: there are many functions of the (quasi-) rule of law that are crucial to regime’s stability and legitimacy. This also means that there remains a space even in autocratic countries, such as the socialist Hungary or apartheid South Africa, where rule of law resilience can be cultivated and reproduced. This does not work everywhere, however: some countries appear to be more resilient than others. Why? What are the institutional and cognitive factors that influence rule of law resilience? How can this resilience nurtured and supported? This is the second major topic of the conference.
Conference Program
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 – Institute for Legal Studies and online
Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85864798391?pwd=MmlVVFltUm1GQWtrN0pnTTgvSXh2QT09
Passcode: 175693
16h30: Plenary Discussion
Between Responsiveness and Instrumentalism: Conceptualizing Law’s Resilience During Rule of Law Erosion
Moderator: Márton Matyasovszky-Németh, External Researcher, Institute for Legal Studies, Assistant Professor, ELTE University, Centre for Law and Society
Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz, Director, Institute of Legal Studies
Matthias Goldmann, Professor of International Law, EBS University Wiesbaden
Zdenek Kühn, Professor of Political Science and Law, Charles University Prague
Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Emeritus, Harvard Law School
Csaba Varga, Professor of Legal Philosophy, Institute for Legal Studies
Thursday, 13 October 2022 – Institute for Legal Studies and online
Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87686769097?pwd=bVpVd2tybys1elB5eXJQVjgxSzR2Zz09
Passcode: 541268
9h00 – 9h15: Opening remarks: Introduction and Concept of the Conference
Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz, Director, Institute of Legal Studies
László Detre, academic advisor, re:constitution
Csaba Győry, Researcher, Institute of Legal Studies, Assistant Professor, ELTE University, Centre for Law and Society
9h15 – 11h40: First Session
Moderator: György Gajduschek, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Legal Studies
9h15 – 9h40: Maria Popova, Jean Monet Chair, Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University: Weaponized Legalism, Low Trust in the Judiciary, and Rule of Law Backsliding
9h40 – 10h00: Discussion
10h00 – 10h25: András Sajó, Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law, CEU: On Some Inconveniences of the Rule of Law
10h25 – 10h45: Discussion
10h45 – 11h00: coffee break
11h00 – 11h25: Jothi Rajah, Research Fellow, American Bar Foundation: Authoritarian Rule of Law: Design, Discourse, and the Everyday
11h25 – 11h45: Discussion
11h45 – 13h15: lunch break
13h15 – 16h30: Second Session
Moderator: Zoltán Szente, Research Professor, Institute for Legal Studies
13h15 – 13h40: Zdenek Kühn, Professor of Political Science and Law, Charles University Prague: Centralized Judicial Review as a Challenge to Liberal Democracy alas “the Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
13h40 – 14h00: Discussion
14h00 – 14h25: Jens Meierhenrich, Professor of International Relations, LSE: Is the Authoritarian Rule of Law an Oxymoron?
14h25 – 14h45: Discussion
14h45 – 15h00: coffee break
15h00 – 15h25: Nino Tsereteli, Researcher, Masaryk University Brno; Legal officer, Democracy Reporting International: Autocratic legacy, institutional change, rule of law and judicial independence in the post-soviet space: the case of Georgia
15h25 – 15h45: Discussion
15h45 – 16h10: Oscar Vilhena Vieira, Getulio Vargas Foundation, School of Law at Sao Paolo: Autocratic Infralegalism
16h10 – 16h30: Discussion
Friday, 14 October 2022 – Institute for Legal Studies and online
Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82421238091?pwd=TzZUazVEb0FqVG1pMndxcTZTTktBQT09
Passcode: 782313
9h00 – 10h00: Keynote
Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Emeritus, Harvard Law School
Two Models of Everyday Resistance to the Erosion of the Rule of Law
10h00 – 11h45: Third Session
Moderator: Mátyás Bencze, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Legal Studies
10h00 – 10h25: Lisa Hilbink, Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota: Revisiting the Origins of Positive Judicial Independence: Incentives, Ideas, and Integrity
10h25 – 10h45: Discussion
10h45 – 11h00: coffee break
11h00 – 11h25: Csaba Győry, Researcher, Institute of Legal Studies, Assistant Professor, ELTE University, Centre for Law and Society: Political Intervention as Institutional Logic: the Dual State Reconsidered
11h25 – 11h45: Discussion
11h45 – 13h00: lunch break
13h00 – 16h30: Fourth Session
Moderator: Márton Varju, Research Professor, Institute for Legal Studies
13h00 – 13h25: András Jakab, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Salzburg: Informal Institutional Elements and the Failure of Building a Constitutional State in Hungary
13h25 – 13h45: Discussion
13h45 – 14h10: Hanna Debska, Assistant Professor of Law and Sociology, Pedagogical University of Cracow, Tomas Warczok, Professor of Law and Sociology, Robert Zajonc Institute of Social Studies, University of Warsaw: Variable Geometry of Legal Legitimacy: The Polish Constitutional Court and the ‘Populism’ Revolution
14h10 – 14h30: Discussion
14h30 – 14h45: coffee break
14h45 – 15h10: Zoltán Fleck, Professor of Law and Society, ELTE: Revolution of the Everyday - Transformation of the Norms. Transformative Failure - Deep Structures of Backsliding
15h10 – 15h30: Discussion
16h15 – 16h30: Wrap-up by :
Csaba Győry, Researcher, Institute of Legal Studies, Assistant Professor, ELTE University, Centre for Law and Society
The conference takes place in a hybrid format. The venue at the conference is the Institute for Legal Studies (Tóth Kálmán str. 4. 1097 Budapest). The conference will be live streamed via zoom.
Mandatory registration: János Rékasi (JTI.Titkarsag@tk.hu)
