ICON CEE 2018

Call for Papers

The methods of exercising state power are in continuous change. The institutional design and constrains of state actors and supranational entities, the efficiency of these in sustaining democratic societies is a classic subject of analysis in legal science. Current challenges related to security, conflicts between state sovereignty and self-determination, as well as the transformation of political culture are phenomena which call for institutional changes or new approaches when interpreting the sphere of action of state actors and supranational entities, taking also into consideration the requirement of protecting fundamental rights.

This Conference will convene a group of scholars to reflect on the current challenges and trends present in Public Law from the perspective of Constitutional Law, International Law, European Law, Administrative Law and Legal Theory.

Submissions are invited from scholars of all levels – from senior scholars to doctoral students (especially from the Central and Eastern European region) – on one or more of the following subjects. We invite participants to take any methodological approach they wish (doctrinal, empirical, historical and/or theoretical perspectives) with special emphasis on the comparative method.

1.    The efficiency of public law in sustaining democratic societies

2.    The changing boundaries of public law

3.    The comparative method in the present practice of public law

The Conference will be highlighted by keynote addresses of Armin von Bogdandy, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, and Andrea Pin, Associate Professor of Comparative Public Law, University of Padua.

How to Participate

Interested scholars are asked to submit an abstract no longer than 500 words by 10 January 2018 by filling out this form. A Conference Selection Committee will choose abstracts and notify all scholars no later than 31 January 2018. Full drafts of papers will be due no later than 20 March 2018. Papers should be no longer than 10,000 words (footnotes included).

A selection of papers presented at the Conference will be published subject to successful blind peer-review.

Costs

There is no cost to participate at the Conference. Participants are responsible for securing their own funding for travel, lodging and other incidental expenses.

Questions

Please direct inquiries in connection with this Conference to the Organisers at powerofpubliclaw2018@gmail.com.

Sponsors

We thank the Presidency of the International Society of Public Law, the Scientific Committee of the Eötvös Loránd University and the Faculty of Law of the Eötvös Loránd University for supporting this Conference.

About the Keynote Speakers

Armin von Bogdandy

Armin von Bogdandy is director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and Professor for Public Law at the University in Frankfurt/Main. He studied law and philosophy before obtaining a Ph.D. in Freiburg (1988) and qualifying as a professor at the FU Berlin (1996).

He has been President of the OECD Nuclear Energy Tribunal as well as a member of the German Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) and the Scientific Committee of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights; he has held visiting positions at the New York University School of Law, the European University Institute, the Xiamen Academy of International Law, and the Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México, among others.

Armin von Bogdandy is the recipient of the Leibniz Prize (2014), the Premio Internacional “Hector Fix Zamudio” (2015), the “Mazo” (gavel) of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights (2015), and the prize for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of legal and economic foundations by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (2008).

His research centers on the structural changes affecting public law, be they theoretical, doctrinal, or practical.

He is member of the Council of the International Society of Public Law.

Andrea Pin

Andrea Pin (JD, University of Padua; PhD, University of Turin) is Associate Professor at the University of Padua, where he has taught Comparative Public Law, Economic & Social Rights, Islamic Law, Human Rights in Comparative Perspective, and Italian Constitutional Law. A former judicial clerk to the Italian Constitutional Court, he has taught at the U.S. Universities of Emory, where he is Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, and of Notre Dame, where he was also Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies in 2014. He is author of four books, including "The Legal Treatment of Muslim Minorities in Italy" (Ashgate 2016); his scholarly articles have appeared in U.S., British, Italian, Spanish, and French journals.

About the Conveners

Eszter Bodnár

Eszter Bodnár has been an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of University Eötvös Loránd (ELTE) in Budapest, Hungary since 2013. She is also a faculty member in the Master of Electoral Policy and Administration program of Scoula Sant’Anna, Pisa. In the last years, she has been teaching and researching in Germany, France, the United States, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Italy, and Canada. She graduated as a lawyer and worked at the Department of Constitutional Law in the Hungarian Ministry of Justice, and in the Hungarian National Election Office. She obtained her PhD degree in constitutional law at ELTE in 2013 with her thesis on the fundamental right attributes and restrictions of the right to vote that was published in Hungarian (HVG-Orac, 2014). In the year 2017/18, she is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Unviersity of Victoria, Canada. In November 2017, she was a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Fellow in Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Melbourne. Her research interest is in comparative constitutional law, international human rights, and European constitutional law. Currently she is working on a comparative constitutional law project on open justice.

David Kosar

David Kosař (1979) is the Head of the Judicial Studies Institute at Masaryk University Faculty of Law. He was awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant to investigate “The rise of judicial self-government and repercussions for separation of powers” (2016-2021). His areas of research include various aspects of constitutional law and politics, judicial studies, transitional justice, human rights law, and constitutional theory. His latest book “Perils of Judicial Self-Government in Transitional Societies” (CUP, 2016) investigates the different forms of how judges are held to account and studies how judicial councils affect the use of mechanisms of judicial accountability. His recent publications appeared in the American Journal of Intl. Law | Intl. Journal of Const. Law | European Const. Law Review | German Law Journal | Utrecht Law Review |. He is member of the Council of the International Society of Public Law.

Zoltán Pozsár-Szentmiklósy

Zoltán Pozsár-Szentmiklósy is an assistant professor of constitutional law at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest. Besides, he has been the Rector’s commissioner-general for student affairs at the same institution, since 2013. He served as the director of the ELTE Bibó István College of Advanced Studies between 2008-2012 and as an elected member of the National Election Commission of Hungary between 2010-2013. Previously he worked as a legal officer of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, an NGO working for the protection of fundamental rights and the enforcement of the rule of law. He obtained his PhD degree in constitutional law in 2014. His research interests are comparative constitutional law, the principle of proportionality and direct democracy.

Pál Sonnevend

Pál Sonnevend is Vice-Dean for International Affairs at the ELTE Faculty of Law. He is an Associate Professor of European and International Law and the head of the International Law Department. He also has a remarkable experience in constitutional law, administrative law, energy law and international arbitration. He has been teaching EU law and international law since 1998. Previously, he advised two consecutive presidents of Hungary, His Excellency Mr. Ferenc Mádl and His Excellency Mr. László Sólyom, in constitutional matters.

About the organising institutions

The initiative to create an International Society of Public Law emerged from the Editorial Board of I·CON – the International Journal of Constitutional Law. The Society was officially launched at an  Inaugural Conference to take place in Florence, Italy, on June 26-28, 2014. The successful format of the Inaugural Conference has been replicated in the Annual meetings, held in New York (2015), Berlin (2016) and Copenhagen (2017). Such events both favored the growth of the Society – which counts over 1.000 active members –  and the establishment of regional and national chapters. ICON-S invites all interested scholars and practitioners – from both law and the social sciences – to formally become Members of the new society. The Society will hold its 2018 Annual Conference on “Identity, Security, Democracy: Challenges for Public Law” on June 25-27, 2018 in Hong Kong.

The Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) is Hungary’s oldest, largest and most prestigious university. Tuition at the Faculty of Law of ELTE University began in 1667 so in 2017 the institution celebrates its 350th anniversary. The Faculty of Law maintains wide-ranging international relations primarily with universities in Europe and is proud to be involved in educational and research projects with similar institutions abroad. In recent years, the ELTE Law placed special emphasis on consolidating ties with universities in neighboring countries to promote intensive regional co-operation in legal education.