On 30 and 31 October the universities of Antwerp and Leuven are co-organising a seminar entitled 'Shifting the Convention System: Counter-dynamics at the National Level' in Antwerp. According to the organisers, the seminar "aims to map out to what extent criticism on the European Court of Human Rights and its case law is being translated into counter-dynamics at the political or judicial level. The focus is not solely put on countries that are known to have highly critical voices. Rather, the seminar will explore whether the translation of criticism into (the demand for) concrete changes in the dynamics between national fundamental rights protection and the Convention system is a pan-European reality or merely limited to a few countries. To enable comparison, the country reports presented at the seminar are based on a questionnaire drafted by the organisers." A very interesting endeavour as we mostly only hear about criticism in a few countries or from a few voices. This makes this mapping exercise all the more useful, to avoid over- or under-estimation the problem. This is the programme of the seminar:
Programme Thursday 30 October 2014
13.30 Registration
13.50 Welcome address by Patricia Popelier (UAntwerp)
Session 1: Shifting dynamics (Chair: Patricia Popelier)
14.00 Sarah Lambrecht (UAntwerp & Belgian Constitutional Court)
Overarching Strategies
14.20 Eva Brems (UGent)
The Impact of Counter-dynamics on the Legitimacy of the ECtHR
14.40 Koen Lemmens (KULeuven)
Criticising the ECtHR or Misunderstanding the Dynamics of Human Rights Protection?
15.00 Discussion
15.30 Coffee break
Session 2: Strong Voices of Criticism vs Strasbourg Friendly Voices
(Chair: Judge Paul Lemmens)
15.50 Roger Masterman (University of Durham) - UK
16.10 Tilmann Altwicker (University of Basel) - Switzerland
16.30 Janneke Gerards (Radboud University Nijmegen) - Netherlands
16.50 Patricia Popelier (UAntwerp) - Belgium
17.10 Discussion
17.40 Reception
19.00 Conference dinner with speakers
Programme Friday 31 October 2014
Session 3: Strong Judicial Review Mandate vs Weak Judicial Review Mandate
(Chair: Catherine Van de Heyning)
9.15 Katharina Pabel (Johannes Kepler University of Linz) - Germany
9.35 Giuseppe Martinico (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna) - Italy
9.55 Anna-Sara Lind (Uppsala University) - Sweden
10.15 Discussion
10.45 Coffee break
Session 4: Criticism on the ECtHR, an East and Central-European Perspective
(Chair: Koen Lemmens)
11.05 Joseph Marko (University of Graz) - Bosnia and Herzegovina
11.25 Lubomir Majercik (Czech Constitutional Court) - Czech Republic
11.45 Armen Mazmanyan (Center for Constitutional Studies Yerevan) - Russia
12.05 Discussion
12.35 Closing words by Catherine Van de Heyning (UAntwerp)
12.50 Lunch
For information on how to register, see here.
