After an opening statement by Professor Paulina Starski, the Polish Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar will provide insight in the current challenges of restoring the rule of law in Poland. This will be followed by a talk by Professor Joseph H. H. Weiler on the populist challenges to liberal democracies in Europe. The conference continues in four panels with excellent scholars and practitioners from all over Europe and Australia. First, a legal-historical panel on the practice of legal transition processes, especially in recent Polish and Hungarian history. Second, an interdisciplinary panel on legal culture and communication, with a focus on the role of state media. Third, a theory-based panel on the role of the constitution in such a transitional process. Fourth, a panel on the impact of the European multi-level system on the rule of law in Poland and Hungary. Finally, in a concluding discussion, the nature and shape of a “playbook for reinstating the rule of law” will be examined.

Modern constitutions are at the centre of sociopolitical hopes and conflicts. Often understood as foundational documents of modern nation-states, they are associated with permanence and stability. However, the limits of the modern conception of constitutions become apparent when it comes to understanding the basic orders of societies and communities across space and time. Constitutions are based on social practices, making them a factor in the process of adaptation of social orders. This dimension becomes especially prominent in times of economic, social, and political change and crisis but has so far been neglected. This implies the need for a consistently interdisciplinary approach.

To this end, ConTrans brings perspectives from different disciplines together for the first time – from law and history to literary studies and psychology – in a comprehensive and sustained endeavour to investigate constitutions as social practices. Only in this way is it possible to comprehend variations of constitutionality across space and time. They range from symbols, rituals, and procedures to the discursive function of ‘ancient constitutions’ in modern debates. This requires an innovative analytical framework to explore communicative and institutional practices of different actors.

The goal of the participating researchers is to establish an international and interdisciplinary constitutional research programme in the humanities and social sciences through ConTrans and to give it concrete form in a Freiburg Centre for Interdisciplinary Constitutional Studies (FreiCIC).

There will be a live stream of the conference available on this website. Registration is only required if you attend in person.

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