Conference organised by the Embassy of France in Hungary, the Embassy of Netherlands in Hungary and the Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Sciences, and the French Institute in Budapest

Date and place: September 23rd and 24th 2021 at the Institute for Legal Studies, Centre for Social Sciences (4 Tóth Kálmán Street, 1097 Budapest) or online

Languages: English and French (simultaneous translation)

Constitutional lawyers in Europe have shown a particular interest in national constitutional traditions and their effects on the practice of constitutional law in their national laws. More specifically, they have conducted research about the practice and the case law of the European Union, based on the common constitutional traditions of the Member States. The question arises whether there is a more transparent method of enforcing and understanding the different constitutional traditions of the Member States and whether these case law practices can be used and taken on by the European Union in its case law and legislation.

The analysis of national constitutional cultures and traditions goes beyond the traditional methods used by lawyers. However, the construction of a legal order based on constitutional traditions is a legal duty, resulting in the creation of law and the enforcement of normative rules.

The comparison between the two countries, France and Hungary, is particularly relevant, with on one hand France, the cradle of constitutional traditions, and on the other hand Hungary, which has adopted the most recent constitution in Europe and is still looking for its constitutional identity. As both countries are members of the European Union, we should also study the other constitutional traditions of the other EU member states in order to define the role of these traditions in the formation of constitutional identities both at national and European level.

Three main topics will be addressed at the conference:

The national perspectives of constitutional identity and their relation to the EU legal order;

The EU law perspective – the nature of the related provisions, the legal conflicts and solutions;

The theoretical approach: what are the possible elements of identity, and how this distinctive element of cooperation can be captured by legal constitutional terms.

In the framework of the 16th Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) (Stockholm, 8-11 September 2021), the ESIL Interest Group on Migration and Refugee Law, the ESIL Interest Group on International Criminal Justice, and the Human Rights Research League organize a workshop on the evolution of the international legal norm prohibiting refoulement...

Nova Southeastern University (“NSU”) Shepard Broad College of Law and the Nova Law Review seek submissions for the Law Review’s annual Symposium on March 11, 2022. Since January 2020, COVID-19 has ravaged the United States’ population physically, economically, and psychologically. Caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (“COVID-19”), the pandemic simultaneously decimated the population, shuttered businesses, and traumatized those experiencing its effects. Consequently, increased prevalence of mental, neurological, and substance use disorders already has and will continue to present the legal system with challenges of previously unknown proportions. As mental health professionals substantiate and address the negative impacts of uncertainty, fear, isolation, and economic hardship, legal issues are multiplying.

The Journal accepts submissions on a wide variety of topics and subjects within the legal field. We are interested in topics about disability law, racial justice and the law, constitutional issues, gender-based legal issues, health law, LGBTQIA+ issues within the legal system, and other related topics. To see our past publications, please visit http://www.jgspl.org/ and Westlaw for a complete list.

A Társadalomtudományi Kutatóközpont Jogtudományi Intézete (TK JTI) és a Magyar Alkotmányjogászok Egyesülete (MAE) 2021. szeptember 2-3. között Győrben megrendezi az Alkotmányjogászok Első Vándorgyűlését, amelyre várja az alkotmányjoggal oktatóként, kutatóként vagy hivatásszerűen foglalkozó érdeklődők jelentkezését.

A rendezvényre hagyományteremtő szándékkal kerül sor annak érdekében, hogy az alkotmányjoggal hivatásszerűen foglalkozó kutatók és gyakorlati szakemberek között rendszeres diskurzusra biztosítson lehetőséget. A vándorgyűlésre várhatóan évente szeptember első hetében, az őszi egyetemi szemeszter kezdete előtt kerül majd sor a rendezésre vállalkozó egyetemi városban.

Az első, 2021. évi rendezvény helyszíne Győr, Révész Hotel (www.duditshotels.hu), időpontja 2021. szeptember 2-3. között.

Az ez évi vándorgyűlés két fő témát jár körül: az első, Az Alaptörvény stabilitása című témakör, második Az alkotmányos identitás.

A két témában 15 perces előadásokra, illetve hozzászólásokra vonatkozó maximum 500 szó terjedelmű javaslatokat várunk rövid absztrakt formájában a titkarsag@tk.hu címre legkésőbb 2021. július 31-ig.

Az elfogadott előadástervekről, illetve a részletes programról a szervezők (a TK JTI és a MAE) 2021. augusztus 10-ig döntenek, illetve küldenek értesítést. Az előadásokra szeptember 2-án kerül sor, azokat vita követi.

Ugyancsak legfeljebb 500 szó terjedelmű javaslatokat várunk a vándorgyűlés második napjára a két fő témakörhöz akár lazábban kapcsolódó témákban, amelyre olyan kollégák jelentkezését várjuk, akik jelenleg PhD-hallgatók, vagy az elmúlt két évben szereztek PhD-fokozatot közjogi tárgyú doktori munkával. Az elfogadott előadásokra a vándorgyűlés második napján, szeptember 3-án délelőtt kerül sor.

Thanks to the European integration’s stimulation of intra-EU trade and mobility, the number of economic transactions and the migration of people have increased remarkably, calling for a clear and effective legal framework. In response to this need, the EU has made extensive use of its competences created by the Treaty of Amsterdam and has enacted various European private international law (“EU PIL”) instruments, taking over most of the field of national private international laws. EU PIL instruments are applied increasingly and gained a determinative significance in civil matters. Nevertheless, national litigants, judges and authorities are still facing challenges in cross-border matters. EU PIL rules need to be applied in a uniform manner. Furthermore, parties and legal counsels engaged in cross-border litigation assume higher risks and incur higher costs.

Nonetheless, the value of private international law unification can be preserved only if the EU PIL instruments are applied correctly and uniformly, hence, the European endeavours in the field should not and cannot stop at statutory unification but need to embrace the judicial practice and make sure that besides the vertical communication between the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) and national courts, there is also a horizontal communication between national courts, authorities and the legal community in general. This is crucial for businesses, consumers and families engaged in cross-border mobility, who may be dissuaded from exercising their free movement rights, if encountering unpredictability, uncertainty and unreasonably high costs. Member State courts have a very significant role in the creation of a “Europe of law and justice” and the success of EU PIL in fulfilling its function, to a large extent, centres around Member State courts’ correct and adequate application of the EU PIL rules.

The CEPIL project inquires whether EU PIL functions optimally in the CE Member States in order to secure “a Europe of law and justice”. It examines whether EU PIL instruments are applied in CE Member States in a correct and uniform manner, whether Member State courts deal appropriately with disputes having a cross-border element and whether the current legal and institutional architecture is susceptible of securing legal certainty and an effective remedy for cross-border litigants.

The projects research output will be published by Kluwer International.

Speaker: Karin Leijon, Uppsala University, Department of Government

How national courts actually behave when engaging in the preliminary ruling procedure (Article 267 TFEU), and what motivates individual national judges to be either active or passive in this procedure, have important implications for the functioning of the EU legal system and the pace of EU legal integration. In this talk, Karin Leijon will first briefly present the findings from a comparative study on whether national courts allow the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to decide politically sensitive cases (i.e. cases in which national policies are at stake) and, whether national courts express opinions in the referrals (i.e. supporting EU law or defending national law). Second, Leijon will also discuss the motives informing the actions of individual (Swedish) judges with regard to the referral of cases and the expression of opinions in the requests for preliminary rulings.

A közelmúltban több kiemelkedő publikáció is napvilágott látott a JTI Professor Emeritusa, Varga Csaba professzor tollából.

Az ʻEncountering Comparative Law in Hungaryʼ című tanulmány a Discovering the Unexpected Comparative Legal Studies in Eastern and Central Europe, ed. William E. Butler & O. V. Kresin (Clark, New Jersey: Talbot Publishing 2021) folyóiratban jelent meg.

A ʻHyperrationality Ending in Anarchy in America (A Case Study on the Overarching Pattern of Judicial Mind)ʼ című tanulmány pedig a Central European Political Science Review 2021 tavaszi számában látott napvilágot.