Roles of Constitutional Courts

in Periods of Constitutional Changes and State of Emergency

The Second International Conference (Eurasian Forum) on Constitutional Justice will continue the discussion that began on November 8-9, 2024 in Bishkek.

The Сonference participants will discuss the roles of constitutional justice tribunals in recent processes of constitutional and political transformation, including constitutional reforms in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan, as well as constitutional changes in Central and Eastern European countries. The varying participation of constitutional justice in these processes is influenced by both broader legal development integration trends in the of the post-Soviet region and Central and Eastern Europe, and the specific legal opinions of national constitutional courts, which are shaped by each country's political systems and judicial doctrines. In this context, particular attention is given to decisions made by constitutional courts during power transitions resulting from constitutional reforms or states of emergency.

The Сonference provides a unique opportunity to summarize the positions of constitutional courts and the arguments of their critics, offering general insights into the courts' independence, the legal validity and legitimacy of their decisions, and the state of constitutionalism in these countries.

The conference will consider the following issues:

• Populism and the balance of constitutional democracy
• Constitutional courts and state paternalism
• The relevance of a comparative analysis of constitutional courts in Central Asia for the global discourse on constitutional control
• What is the legitimacy of constitutional courts in the era of populism?
• Constitutional rights as a subject of judicial appeal
• The most daring course: legal succession and continuity in the activities of constitutional control bodies
• Access to constitutional justice: Covid and other troubles
• Problems in implementing the power of the constitutional court to review an international treaty that has not entered into force for compliance with the Constitution
• Bioethical dignity of a child: facets of constitutional justice and modern biojurisprudence

And also some individual issues of constitutional protection of human rights.

Experts from the Central Asian region, Russia and Europe will gather at the conference in Astana. We also invite the Constitutional Courts of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as participants and speakers.

As a result of the conference, publications will be prepared in the journals “Comparative Constitutional Review” and “International Justice”.