Judicial Studies Institute

04/05/2026

Join the online roundtable discussion "Courts Under Scrutiny: Judges and Democracy" with Katarína Šipulová and Tom Daly, Agnieszka Kubal, Lisa Hilbink & Richard Clary this Thursday.

🗓️7 May 2026
⏰1:00-2:00 pm (GMT+1)
💻Online (Zoom}

👉Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/lxBC11VpS9yYx1t6fUsNQA

➡️More details here: https://oxgs.org/event/courts-under-scrutiny-judges-and-democracy/

28/04/2026

⚖️ Tomorrow, do not miss an important discussion with David Kosar as part of the two-week EUI Constitutional Law and Politics Working Group spotlight on the judiciary.

David will present his comparative research on “Judicial overstay” (co-authored with Patrick Leisure) — examining when judges remain on the bench beyond the conditions originally intended, and what this means for judicial independence, institutional integrity, and democratic governance.

This timely conversation offers valuable insights into one of the key contemporary challenges facing judicial systems worldwide.

🔗 Learn more about upcoming EUI Constitutional Law and Politics Working Group events:

The Constitutional Law and Politics Working Group provides an EUI researcherled forum for everyone interested in constitutional law, democracy, and the interp

27/04/2026

🇭🇺 Last Friday, David Kosar took part in the high-level conference “Transition 2.0 – Hungary” at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (MPIL) in Heidelberg.

🌍⚖️ Convened by Adam Bodnar, Armin von Bogdandy, Pál Sonnevend, and Luke Dimitrios Spieker, the conference brought together leading legal scholars and political scientists from across Europe to explore how a future democratic government in Hungary could dismantle the illiberal legal order built under Viktor Orbán while remaining within the boundaries of European law.

👥David joined Marcin Szwed and László Detre on a panel dedicated to courts, where he unpacked the concept of court-packing into concrete institutional mechanisms, including changes to judicial retirement ages, expansion of judicial appointments, creation of new chambers, and ad hoc courts. The panel discussion carefully examined the legal risks these measures may pose before the European Court of Human Rights and EU courts, as well as their broader political costs during democratic transition.

🔍🏛️A key theme emerged: the very tools once used to capture the Hungarian judiciary could, under carefully designed legal safeguards, also serve to restore constitutional democracy.

24/04/2026

Proud to announce the publication of our new volume co-edited by Attila Vincze "100 Years of Rule of Law in Daily Life: From the Austrian Administrative Procedure Act to a European Administrative Procedure" (Editoriale Scientifica, 2026).

Marking the centenary of the Austrian Allgemeines Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz (AVG), this book explores how administrative procedure shapes the rule of law in everyday life, from its Austrian origins to contemporary European challenges—digitalisation, AI, good administration, and fundamental rights.

An international, trilingual volume bringing together leading scholars and young researchers from across Europe.
📍 Based on the XVII SIPE Congress, Brno (2025).

23/04/2026

The conference The European Court of Human Rights and Sport, held on 16 April 2026 at the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University, offered a discussion of current ECtHR case law in the field of sport ⚖️🏅. It focused in particular on sports arbitration, doping, freedom of expression, gender, and other contested issues at the intersection of sporting autonomy and the protection of fundamental rights.

The programme brought together the perspectives of academics, practitioners, and judges, creating space for a broader debate on how European human-rights standards shape the functioning of contemporary sport.

The conference also featured Michal Kovalčík of JUSTIN, who, in his response to Jan Exner’s paper on doping controls and Article 8 🧪📄, discussed the distinction between the State’s positive and negative obligations under Article 8 of the Convention in the field of sport and the protection of athletes’ privacy.

He also addressed the nature of sports governing bodies, sports courts, and sports arbitration, and the way in which private and public dimensions of fundamental-rights protection intersect within these structures.

20/04/2026

In one our April seminars, we had the pleasure of hosting Professor Vladislava Stoyanova for her talk “Positive Obligations under the ECHR: Do Analytical Clarity and Predictability Matter?” 🎓✨

Her talk explored how positive obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights are defined, triggered, and assessed, focusing on key standards such as knowledge (“knew or ought to have known”), causation, and reasonableness in state responsibility ⚖️📚. It highlighted ongoing challenges in ensuring analytical clarity and predictability in the case law, particularly regarding how omissions are linked to harm and what constitutes sufficient preventive action by states.

We were happy to welcome colleagues from Prague, Vienna and even several justices from the Czech Constitutional Court 🇨🇿🤝. Thanks to all the special guests who attended!

A warm thank you to Vladislava for an enriching and fascinating discussion of a crucial topic 💬👏

27/03/2026

🆕 Nový text ve speciálním čísle Respektu o umělé inteligenci
Na pozvání redakce Týdeník Respekt přispěli Ondřej Kadlec a Jakub Harašta do speciálu věnovaného AI pohledem z práva a justice.
Text nabízí víc než jen přehled toho, kde se dnes právo a umělá inteligence protínají. Otevírá také dvě otázky, které zatím stojí spíše stranou debaty:

👉 AI v právu není jen nástroj. Je to forma moci, která ovlivňuje, jak právo hledáme, interpretujeme a používáme.
👉 Zároveň funguje jako zrcadlo právnické profese a nutí znovu promýšlet, co vlastně tvoří podstatu právní práce.

📖 Článek je součástí speciálního čísla Respektu a můžete si ho přečíst odemčený zde:
https://respekt.cz/special/2026/umela-inteligence-hrozba-a-prilezitost/zasadni-otazka-zustava-co-by-ve-svete-prava-melo-zustat-nevyhnutelne-lidske?gift=3ykk15kyxr

25/03/2026

What happens when a court starts answering legal questions with AI? ⚖️🤖

The Czech Constitutional Court has recently launched a chatbot that responds to legal queries based on its case law. At first glance, this looks like a promising step towards making law more accessible 📖✨

But it is more than just a search tool. 🔍

In a new blogpost on Verfassungsblog, our member Ondřej Kadlec argues that the chatbot introduces a new technological filter between the Court and the public:

“This system helps shape how people understand and use the law — without it being clear how it works or who is responsible for its design. At best, it introduces a layer of uncertainty that most users cannot meaningfully assess. At worst, it may shift part of the power to shape legal meaning to actors outside established frameworks of legal accountability.” ⚠️

What follows is a broader question: who shapes the meaning of law in the age of AI — and how? 🧠⚖️🤖

🔗Read the full piece here:

A few weeks ago, the Czech Constitutional Court introduced an AI-powered legal chatbot directly on its official website, allowing users to ask questions in natural language and receive answers that synthesise the Court’s case law. At first glance, the innovation appears to offer a more convenient ...

04/03/2026

📢 Our latest article by David Kosař and Attila Vincze is out in The American Journal of Comparative Law!

It explores a crucial question in post-communist Central European constitutionalism: is there room for unwritten constitutional conventions in systems traditionally dominated by strict legal formalism? 🏛️

The article analyzes Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, showing that the conceptualization and use of these unwritten rules vary profoundly across the region. 🌍

The authors identify four key factors that allow constitutional conventions to emerge and take root:
1️⃣ A lower level of majoritarianism that requires greater cooperation between constitutional actors
2️⃣ A stable political landscape and constitutional text
3️⃣ The absence of an explicit constitutional rule limiting the sources of law to only written text
4️⃣ The presence of legal professionals trained in the common law world in crucial positions ⚖️

This marks a major contribution to understanding how unwritten norms shape domestic separation of powers! 📚

👉 Read more in the Open Access article here: doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaf031

03/03/2026

Yesterday at the JUSTIN seminar, we were delighted to host Ana Bobić and her talk “Hierarchies of human beings and freedom under EU law: A Hegelian critique.” 🎓✨

Drawing on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s idea of mutual recognition, Ana examined how EU law creates layered legal statuses—from mobile EU citizens to third-country nationals and asylum seekers—that structure unequal degrees of belonging. She argued that these hierarchies challenge the EU’s claim to be a community founded on freedom, since genuine freedom in a Hegelian sense requires institutions that enable mutual recognition among free and equal agents. ⚖️🇪🇺

We were especially pleased to welcome many colleagues from Katedra ústavního práva a politologie PrF MU [the Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science] whose presence contributed to a rich and lively discussion. 💬🤝

A warm thank you to Ana for an intellectually demanding and inspiring seminar! 🙏📚

27/02/2026

📢 Conference on Unwritten Constitutionalism and Informality | 10–11 February 2026 | Brno

What role do unwritten norms and informal institutions play in constitutional systems — especially in times of political pressure and institutional stress?

Earlier this month, the “Unwritten Constitutionalism and Informality” conference brought together leading scholars in constitutional law, political science, and international law to Brno. The event was co-organised by Durham University (UNCP project) and Masarykova univerzita (INFINITY project).

Over two days, participants explored:
🔹 constitutional culture and conventions
🔹 judicial behaviour and institutional resilience
🔹 transparency of informal practices
🔹 public prosecutors under political pressure
🔹 the global and supranational dimensions of unwritten norms

The conference confirmed that constitutional law cannot be understood solely through written texts. Its functioning is co-shaped by unwritten norms, institutional habits, professional cultures, and political expectations — across national as well as international contexts.

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to the rich discussions and comparative perspectives from across Europe and beyond.

👉 Read the full article here https://justin.law.muni.cz/en/news/conference-on-unwritten-constitutionalism-and-informality