The seminar addresses the recent problems surrounding the erosion of a liberal-oriented rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Hungary and Poland. The policies of the Orban and Kaczynski administrations have raised foundational, pressing questions in academia and political spheres. Who is the sovereign? What constitutes political will and the body politic? What sort of legitimacy is necessary for political cohesion and how is legitimacy built and managed? This seminar will open up room for different perspectives and narratives, placing specific regional contexts in relation to broader philosophical thought concerning the limits and possibilities of a liberal rule of law (e.g., Habermas, Kelsen, Mouffe, Schumpeter, Schmitt).

The seminar is open to everybody who is interested in the topic.

Venue: The Aleksanteri Institute at the University of Helsinki; the Seminar Room, 2nd floor, Unioninkatu 33

Arranger: Dawid Bunikowski, LLD in legal theory
Co-sponsor: The Interest Group on International Legal Theory of the European Society of International Law
Co-organiser/Co-sponsor: The University of Eastern Finland Law School
Co-organiser/Co-sponsor: The Aleksanteri Institute, The University of Helsinki
Co-organiser/Co-sponsor: Jean Monnet Programme, The University of Helsinki

Date: 15 February 2017

Speakers and confirmed participants

• Prof. Kaarlo Tuori, Helsinki Faculty of Law
• Dr. Katalin Miklossy, Docent, Senior Researcher, Aleksanteri Institute (Helsinki)
• Dr. Emilia Palonen, Docent, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political and Economic Studies (Helsinki)
• Dr. Walter Rech, Postdoctoral Researcher, Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights (Helsinki)
• Dr. Dawid Bunikowski, IGILT, ESIL; UEF; Associate, Cardiff Centre for Law and Religion

Coffee breaks:
Refreshments for participants.

Programme

12.00. Welcoming with coffee

Session I. “Practice” (Chair: Dr Heino Nyyssönen, University of Turku)
12.10. Dawid Bunikowski, ”The crisis in Poland, and Schmittian questions in “the rule of law” debate”
12.40. Katalin Miklossy, ”The lack of the rule of law in the lawyers’ regime: Hungary”
13.10. Emilia Palonen, ”Populism and polarization in Hungary”
13.40. Discussion.
14.10. Coffee break.

Session II. “Theory” (Chair: Dawid Bunikowski, Co-chair: Dr. Maria Varaki, Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights)
14.30. Walter Rech, ”Political Subjects and Structural Constraints”
15.00. Kaarlo Tuori, ”Constitutional courts, Schmitt and Kelsen”/Comments
15.30. Discussion.
16.00. Concluding remarks.