Details

In his course, Professor Dieter Grimm will present detailed information on the German Constitutional Law doctrine focusing on the following subjects:

1. Origins and Development of the Basic Law (histroic background)

2. Leading Principles: Democracy, Rule of Law, Social State, Federalism, Separation of Powers

3. Continued

4. Political Parties and Elections

5. Fundamental Rights

6. Judicial Review and Constitutional Interpretation

In comparison thereto, Professor Wojciech Sadurski will present an overview of the main constitutionalism developments and trends in Central and Eastern Europe, after the fall of Communism in the region in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While he will consider the examples taken from all countries of the region, special focus will be on those countries which are usually considered as most “consolidated” in their democratic developments, such as Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia etc. The course will be composed of the following parts:

1.Introduction to “transitional constitutionalism” in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE): its determinants,

main characteristics, and relationships with constitutionalism in Western Europe.

2.The model of constitutional review and its characteristics discussed along the three dimensions: abstract/concrete,

ex ante and ex post, final and tentative.

3.Constitutional courts in CEE and their modes of operation, methods of reasoning, selection of judges,

significance of decisions, and quest for legitimacy.

4.Civil and political rights in CEE constitutions and in the judgments of constitutional courts, with special

emphasis on freedom of speech and methods of “dealing with the past” (“lustration”, “decommunization”).

5.Socio-economic rights, equality rights, and minority rights.

6.Europeanization of constitutional law in CEE, discussed in two dimensions: in the relationship of national laws

with the European Convention of Human Rights system, and in the relationship with the European Union.