Programme

Registration of the participants

• Markéta Selucká (Dean of Faculty of Law Masaryk university)
• Pavel Rychetský (President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic)

Judicial independence: The view from the inside

• Pavel Rychetský (President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic)
• András Bragyova(former Judge of the Constitutional Court of Hungary)
• Andrzej Rzepliński (former President of the Constitutional Court of Poland)
• Alexander Bröstl (former Judge of the Constitutional Court of Slovakia)

Chair: Vlastimil Göttinger

Coffee break

The conference will be launched with contributions of current and former judges of Constitutional Courts of V4 entailing their personal experience with the said institutions. Broad territorial representation in the panel will provide grounds for comparison of different scenarios which varies in their roots, evolvement as well as in their consequences.

Judicial independence: The view from the (academic) outside

• David Kosař (associate professor, Masaryk University, Faculty of Law)
• Tímea Drinóczi (professor, Kenyatta University, School of Law)
• Mirosław Wyrzykowski (professor, Warsaw University, Faculty of Law and Administration)
• Šimon Drugda (researcher, University of Copenhagen) 

Chair: Robert Zbíral

Lunch

The second panel will provide different perspectives and views of academia in V4 countries on the functioning of the judiciary system in the said states and possible efforts of different players to intervene in the judiciary system. These inputs will allow us to understand the practical experience of judges in the broader context of law and political science describing interactions of judiciary with other branches of state power.

Lunch

Judicial independence: The view from the above

• Kateřina Šimáčková (judge of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic)
• Dimitry Kochenov (professor, University of Groningen)

Chair: Jaroslav Benák

The third panel will introduce the role of international organizations (namely the Council of Europe and the European Union) and impact of their acitivities on the situation in V4 states.

Judicial independence: The view from the (political) outside

• Marek Benda (Chairman of the Constitutional Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic)
• Erik Tabery (Editor in chief, Respekt)
• Eliška Wagnerová (former Vice-president of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic)

Chair: Pavel Molek

 Coffee break

The conference will conclude with the final roundtable discussing how the Czech judiciary and the Czech Republic itself should reflect on the development of other Central-European countries. The speakers will further provide their perspective based on their personal and professional experience.