College of Europe and European University Institute will be on 12 and 13 May 2014 holding conference on “Central and Eastern European Judges under the EU Influence: The Transformative Power of Europe Revised on the 10th Anniversary of the Enlargement”. The conference aims to answer the following questions :
What has been the “transformative power” of EU law on the reasoning and ideologies of Central European countries’ judiciary? What has been the impact of EU membership on their institutions? How can we explain the radical change of approach of some initially “Euro-friendly” Constitutional Courts that in recent times have questioned the constitutionality of EU acts and even a judgement of the ECJ? What are the cultural and political reasons of the backsliding on rule of law and constitutional guarantees in some of the Central and Eastern European countries following the accession?
The programme of the conference is as follows :
Monday, 12th
May 2014
SALA EUROPA, VILLA SCHIFANOIA
9.00 Arrival and Registration of participants
9.30 Welcome and Introduction
Loïc Azoulai, Director of the Centre for Judicial Cooperation, European University Institute
Michal Bobek, College d’Europe
10.00 Stream 1: Judicial Reasoning and Judicial Ideology – Chair: Loïc Azoulai
Short presentations by
Peter Cserne – Formalism and Policy Arguments in Judicial Reasoning: Is Central Europe a Special Case?
Jan Zobec and Jernej Letnar Černič – The Remains of the Authoritarian Mentality within the Slovene Judiciary
Marcin Matczak, Matyas Bencze and Zdeněk Kühn – EU law and CEE judges. Administrative judiciaries in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland ten years after the Accession
Rafał Mańko – The Impact of EU Membership upon Private Law Adjudication in Poland: A Case Study on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts
10.40 Comments by Boštjan Zalar and Erhard Blankenburg
11.15 Coffee break
11.30 General Discussion
12.00 Stream 2: Structural and Institutional Changes – Chair: Matej Avbejl
Short presentations by Sinisa Rodin – Dumb and no More Here
Marton Varju and Andras Kovacs – The impossibility of being a European and a national judge at the same time: a Central and Eastern European experience
Nina Poltorak – Changes in the level of the national judicial protection under the EU influence on the example of Polish legal system
Alexander Kornezov – When David Teaches EU Law to Goliath – A Generational Upheaval in the Making in the Bulgarian Judiciary
Aleš Galič – Aversion Against a Judicial Discretion in Civil Proceedings in Post-communist Countries: Can the Influence of the EU Law Change It?
13.00 Lunch
14.20 Stream 2: Structural and Institutional Changes (continued)
Comments by Mirosław Wyrzykowski and Tudorel Stefan
14.40 General Discussion
15.15 Coffee break
15.30 Stream 3: Constitutional Courts and Constitutional Justice – Chair: Wojciech Sadurski
Short presentations by
Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz – Polish Constitutional Court and the comity of circumspect
constitutional courts: The Court of old closures or new openings?
Jiří Přibán – Constitutional Sovereignty and Jurisprudence of the Czech Constitutional Court
Allan Tatham – “Keeping the Faith”: The Trials and Tribulations of the Hungarian Constitutional Court in following its European Vocation
Aleksandra Kustra – When the language you speak is not your mother-tongue: Confusions in CE Constitutional Courts’ application of legal concepts concerning EU Membership
Pola Cebulak – From a «teacher-student» relationship to a «student-student» dynamic? The Central and Eastern European «block » of Constitutional Courts in European Judicial Politics
16.30 Comments by Marek Safjan
16.50 General Discussion
17.30 End of Day 1
Tuesday, 13th
May 2014
SALA EUROPA, VILLA SCHIFANOIA
9.30 Stream 4: Backsliding and the Rule of Law – Chair: Inge Govaere
Short presentations by
Kim Lane Sheppele – Constitutional coups and judicial review: how transnational institutions can strengthen peak courts at times of crisis (with special reference to Hungary)
Petra Gyöngyi – Constitutional constraints and possibilities and the role of the European Union in guiding judicial reforms in Hungary and Romania
Uladzislau Belavusau – Challenging Authoritarism: EU Transformative Power in Central & Eastern Europe?
Martin Mendelski – Pathologies of rule of law promotion: The uneven impact of the EU on de jure and de facto rule of law development in Central and Eastern Europe
10.15 Comments by Hannes Kraemer and Jenö Czuczai
10.50 Coffee break
11.10 General Discussion
11.40 Conclusions
Of Light, Darkness, and the White Man`s Burden
Michal Bobek
Esohap 