Thursday, 5 June
14:45 – 15:00 | Welcome (by Ramona Coman and Agnieszka Kubal)
15:00 – 16:30 | Panel 1 – Resistance to authoritarian turns in Eastern Europe
Chair: Ramona Coman, Université libre de Bruxelles
– Crushing judicial resistance: interactions of court-curbing and judicial resistance in Hungary, Etienne Hanelt & Attila Vincze, Masaryk University
– Judging under the grind of authoritarian politics: lessons from Hungary and Romania, Beáta Huszka and Ágnes Kovács, University of Oxford, ELTE
– ‘Activism via Deference’ in Constitutional Courts’ Conventional Rights-Protecting Role and Resisting De-Democratization: Evidence from Hungary and Slovakia, Max Steuer, Comenius University, Bratislava
16:30 – 17:00 | Tea/Coffee Break
Friday, 6 June
09:00 – 10:30 | Panel 2 – From judicial resistance to activism?
Chair: Birgit Apitzsch, University of Bochum
– Judicial activism in asylum policy: Resistance through rules conversion and organizational discretion, Cristina Dallara, Alice Lacchei, Madalina Moraru, University of Bologna
– Judicial Resilience in Times of War: Ukrainian Judges’ Experiences of Maintaining Rule of Law During Russian Military Aggression (2014-2025), Hanna Oliinyk and Agnieszka Kubal, University of Oxford
– What Explains Punishment in Historical Memory-related Court Cases? The Case of Ukraine since 2022, Andrii Nekoliak, University of Amsterdam
10:30 – 11:00 | Tea/Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:30 | Panel 3 – Post-illiberalism, reforms, role of judiciary (the curious case of Poland)
Chair: Agnieszka Kubal, University of Oxford
– Judicial mobilisation in times of the rule of law transition, Barbara Grabowska-Moroz, Marcin Szwed, Central European University, University of Warsaw
– Judicial Formalism in Post-Illiberal Poland (2024): Lessons Learned from Resistance, Marcin Mrowicki, University of Warsaw
– Post-illiberal judicial activism. Polish judges’ manifestations of contrasting views on judicial independence in times of re-liberalization, Aleksandra Dzięgielewska, Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy
12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch
13:30 – 15:00 | Panel 4 – Judicial solidarity and the role of apex European courts
Chair: Beata Huszka, University of Oxford
– Activism of Foreign Judges against Attacks on Judicial Independence in another Country: A Form of Judicial Solidarity in Europe?, Vanessa Barbé, University of Valenciennes
– How comparative perspectives on judicial independence shape judicial resistance and transnational support from German judges and judges associations, Birgit Apitzsch and Zeynep Bozkurt, Ruhr-University Bochum
– The Origin Story of the European Court’s of Justice Engagement with the Rule-of-Law Crisis, Pola Cebulak, VU Amsterdam
15:00 – 15:30 | Conclusion & Publication Discussion
Chair: Agnieszka Kubal, University of Oxford
This research project coordinated by Agnieszka Kubal (University of Oxford), Birgit Apitzsch (Ruhr-University Bochum) and Ramona Coman (Université libre de Bruxelles) is supported by the British Academy’s Knowledge Frontiers Symposia Follow-on Funding Programme
Registration
This two-day conference also includes a book pre-launch debate, entitled « What do judges do, and how do they perceive their role when democracy is under strain? », on June 5th, from 5:00 to 6:30 PM.