Workshops & Lectures

The Future of Illiberalism, 14 May 2026

discussion on possible scenarios for the future of illiberal tendencies, especially in East Central Europe.
with: Katarina Batkova, Matej Slavik, Anna Wojciuk, Edit Zgut-Przybylska, chair: Marta Bucholc (Old University Library building, U Warsaw)

18:30 film screening of "80 Angry Journalists" followed by a discussion - Kino LAB in Ujazdowski Castle

The „Towards Illiberal Constitutionalism“-team attended the Volkswagen Foundation's symposium, which took place on 04 - 06 Sept. 2024 in Hanover. Joachim von Puttkamer, Marta Bucholc and Ned Richardson-Little presented our research project. On the final day, Joachim von Puttkamer took part in the round table „A look forward“ discussing the future of the connection between science and society.

Antikommunismus-Paradox. Das illiberale Erbe deutsch-deutscher Vergangenheit

Sophie Lange presented her project and latest findings at the research colloquium of Professor Thomas Mergel at the Historical Institute at Humboldt University on 29 May 2026.

The workshop was a cooperation between the Chair of Public Law, Public International Law, European Union Law and Comparative Law, the Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena (both University of Jena) and the Geneva Graduate Institute. It was organised by Alejandro Rodiles Bretón, Jakub Szumski, and Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín and took place on 27 May 2024 in Jena.

Socialist Legality. History and Memory of a Tainted Concept

On 25 May 2024 Jakub Szumski, Research Assistant at the Imre Kertesz Kolleg, presented his paper on socialist legality at the workshop „Governing Remembrance: Collective Memory, the Public Sphere and Law“ held at the Riga Graduate School of Law, Latvia.
The workshop’s main objective was to bring together socio-legal scholars whose research tackles the phenomena of commemoration and social remembrance. This includes both an update of the theory of collective social memory itself and specific case studies examining local policies that seek to regulate this issue by law.

East-Central European Legal Encounters with the Global South

On 23 May Jakub Szumski (Imre Kertesz Kolleg, Jena) presented a paper on „East-Central European Legal Encounters with the Global South“ during a seminar at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia.

Writing Workshop in Potsdam 15 - 17 May 2024

At an internal project meeting in Potsdam, the teams continued their discussion of the planned book project – a jointly authored manuscript. They presented the progress made on their respective chapters, as well as the overarching theses and further research questions for the planned book.

Jakub Szumski (Imre Kertész Kolleg, Jena) organised a panel discussion and gave a lecture on the topic ‘Krzysztof Skubiszewski and the Personal History of Internationalism’ as part of the Sixth Congress on Polish Studies [6. Kongress Polenforschung]. The Congress on Polish Studies, the largest gathering of experts on Poland in the German-speaking world, took place between 14 & 17 March 2024 at Dresden University of Technology.

Talk with Dr. Ned Richardson-Little

On 13 March 2024, Dr Ned Richardson-Little gave a lecture at the Institute for Historical Research at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, as part of the ‘Modern German History’ seminar.

The “democracy paradox” and its historical roots in the Peaceful Revolution of 1989

Sophie Lange, post-doc researcher at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam (ZZF), took part in the Dezim Institute’s international conference, ‘In Search of the Radicalised Mainstream: Mobilisation, Normalisation and Normativisation of Far-Right Ideologies from the Centre’, which took place in Berlin from 9 to 10 November 2023. She gave the paper on the 'democracy paradox' on the panel "Varieties of Radicalized Mainstream in Europe".

The process of import of liberal constitutionalism to post-1989 East Central Europe as a promotional strategy of transnational and national expert Actors.

Matěj Slavík, PhD Student at iCourts, University of Copenhagen and member of the Prague project team presented his research at a research colloquium at the Aleksander Brückner Center for Polish Studies, Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg on 01 November 2023.

[Maintaining inner peace. Former GDR civil rights activists as catalysts for a reunified Society?]
Sophie Lange, Research Associate at the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History, presented her project at the workshop „Work in Progress“ at the German Association for Historical Peace and Conflict Research (AKHF) on 20 October 2023.

conference topic: Bridging or Sanctioning Differences?
September, 28 and 29 2023 in Leipzig, Germany
Several team members of our project took part in the Leipzig Rule of Law Conference, e.g. in the panel "Regional or National Peculiarities in Understanding the Rule of Law?" or "Defining Rule of Law Standards – Understanding Entanglements between EU Law and Domestic Law."

Eastern Blocs’ International Law: Poznań School and the Integration of Liberal Internationalism into Socialist Doctrines

On 28 August 2023 Jakub Szumski (Imre Kertesz Kolleg, Jena) presented his research at the Global Justice Cluster, Erasmus Law School, Erasmus University of Rotterdam

Historicizing Constitutional Illiberalism in Poland: The Ehrlich–Kaczynski Link

Naum Trajanovski, Assistant at the Faculty of Sociology (University of Warsaw), was a Visegrad-Fellow at the Open Society Archive (OSA) in spring 2023 in Budapest, Hungary. There he presented his research at the OSA lecture series.

The presentation took place on Tuesday, 25 April 2023.

Public Discussion | Central European University Budapest

Marta Bucholc, Juliana Cesario Alvim Gomes, Stefania Kapronczay, and Andrea Pető discussed the (global) war on gender and reproductive rights. Edit Zgut Przybylska chaired the panel.

Ned Richardson-Little held a presentation at the EuroStorie Research Seminar (Center of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives) at Helsinki University, Finland on 9 December 2022.

Warfare and Lawfare. Borders, International Crimes, and the Polish Experience in the 20th Century

Jakub Szumski (Imre Kertesz Kolleg) together with Professor Agata Fijalkowski (Leeds Law School), presented his research at the Center for German and European Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison on 16 Nov. 2022.

Constitutional Imaginaries in Europe - conference participation

Michal Kopeček and Matěj Slavík (Prague team) attended the conference Constitutional Imaginaries in Europe, held on 06-07 October 2022 at the University of Copenhagen.

There Kopeček offered a complex picture of the post-1989 legal developments in Central and Eastern Europe. By conducting an analysis of Hungarian liberal constitutionalism after 1989, he argued that the narrative of a populist backlash by nationalist-conservative forces against the liberal consensus prevailing among cosmopolitan elites fails to encapsulate the complexity of constitutional developments after 1989. A more historically oriented research would offer useful perspectives.

Warsaw Expert Forum Illiberal Constitutionalism, Sept. 2022

The Forum aims at bringing together historians, legal scholars, justice practitioners and political stakeholders to discuss the pressing issues of the role of rule of law in democratic transition and the challenges of illiberal authoritarianism in national, European, and global scope. The first Warsaw forum will focus on recent Hungarian and Polish experience in broader European context.
(Dom Spotkań z Historią, Warsaw)

Project Workshop Warsaw, 30.09.2022

internal writing workshop at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Warsaw
The team members presented and discussed their research with three invited commentators: Professor Michał Kaczmarczyk (University of Gdańsk), Professor Dariusz Stola (Polish Academy of Sciences) and Professor Tomasz Zarycki (University of Warsaw).

Accommodation Game. Adam Daniel Rotfeld, Krzysztof Skubiszewski and the Field of Polish International Law in State Socialist Poland

Jakub Szumski, (Imre Kertesz Kolleg, Jena) presented his research at the conference “Socialisms and International Law in the Contemporary World”, held at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest on 15 Sept. 2022.