KFG workshop | Equality in Central and Eastern European Constitutionalism

Date: 17.–18.09. 2026

Location: Historicum, Schellingstraße 12, 3rd floor, Room K327

This workshop seeks to bring together a range of perspectives on how constitutions – and especially constitutional courts – in Central and Eastern Europe engage with the principle of equality and the prohibition of discrimination. Its aims are analytical and conceptual, not primarily doctrinal. The main question we want to explore is to what extent are conceptions of equality influenced by the countries’ socialist past on one hand and to which extent have they been influenced externally, whether by its Germanic neighbouring legal systems, EU membership (and adoption of the EU equality acquis) and/or by – Western and often common-law based – theories of equality (see e.g. Fredman’s the transformative model of substantive equality).

Thursday 17 September 2026

12.30 Arrival
13.00 Welcome: Martin Schulze Wessel (Munich); Introduction: Barbara Havelková (Oxford), Anna Śledzińska-Simon (Wrocław)
13.10-14.30
Panel 1: Concepts in Equality

• Anna Śledzińska-Simon (Wrocław): Apples and Oranges. Equality and Difference before the Polish Constitutional Tribunal

• Ladislav Vyhnanek (Brno): Equality and Dignity in the Czech Constitutional Case-Law: An Underappreciated Relationship

• Katarina Vatovec (Nova Gorica), Martin Dekleva (Nova Gorica): Differentiating Equality: Natural and Legal Persons in Slovenian Constitutional Jurisprudence

15.00-16.30
Panel 2: Country Case Studies

• Bianca Gutan (Sibiu): Equality and Non-Discrimination in The Constitutional Case Law – The Case Of Romania (hybrid)

• Iwona Wróblewska (Toruń): The Dynamic Relationship Between Equality and Non-Discrimination in Polish Constitutional Tribunal Case Law

• Dimitry Gegenava (Tbilisi), Tsisia Okropiridze (Tbilisi): Constitutional Protection of Equality in Georgia

• Boyan Kamenov (Sofia): The fragmented engagement of the Bulgarian Constitutional Court with equality (online)

17.00-18.00
Panel 3: Equality in Hungary: Past and Future

• Lidia Balogh (Budapest - hybrid), Timea Drinoczi (Vilnius), Vivien Moór (Budapest): Equality and State Intervention Revisited: Gendered Dimensions of Pensions in Hungary from State Socialism to Today

• Krista Kovacs (Budapest): Restoring Equality in Hungarian Constitutionalism

Friday 18 September 2026
8.30-10.00
Panel 4: Compounded Inequalities

• Jan Denka (Poznań), Adam Ploszka (Warsaw): The Principle of Equality as a Vehicle for Social Rights Enforcement in Central and Eastern Europe

• Maros Matiasko (Olomouc): Judicial Silences on Segregation: Constitutional Court Cases from Czechia and Slovakia

• Biljana Kotevska (Dublin): Of Missed and Seized Opportunities: Multiple and Intersectional Discrimination and the Constitutional Courts of Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia

• Merilin Kiviorg (Tartu): Education, Religion, and Disability: Constitutional Equality and Supreme Court Practice in Estonia

10.30-12.15
Panel 5: Litigating Equality

• Lilla Farkas (Budapest), Dezideriu Gergely (Bucharest): Forum shopping for constitutional rights: the case of the Roma (hybrid)

• Valentina Frolova (Helsinki): Equality and gender-based violence before the Russian Constitutional Court (hybrid)

• Donatas Murauskas (Vilnius): The role of constitutional courts in developing equal protection of same-sex couples in the Baltic states

• Barbara Havelková (Oxford), Terezie Boková (Brno): (Not) litigating equality and discrimination in Czechia

12.15-12.30 Closing Remarks

 

To register for the workshop, please contact us: kfg20@lrz.uni-muenchen.de.

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