Adapting and Protecting European Constitutional Law in Times of Illiberal Populism

ongoing

The recent wave of populist governments - mainly, but not exclusively, right-wing - in Europe and around the world presents a significant challenge to the values of liberal democracy and constitutionalism. The project has three goals. Its objectives are: 1. to provide participants with an adequate level of knowledge on the values of the EU; 2. to analyse and investigate the current dynamics through which illiberal populisms abuse and manipulate the categories of constitutional law and the instruments of liberal constitutional law; 3. It also seeks to respond to the crisis of liberal constitutionalism by proposing concrete solutions aimed at adapting European constitutional law to the new demands of a society characterised by different waves of illiberal populisms. This project also provides a critical, multi-faceted view of the liberal constitutionalism crisis in the European Union and beyond. In so doing, it will adopt a comparative and multidisciplinary approach. The proposed activities are the following: - 3 courses on EU and Comparative Constitutional Law; - 3 spring academies, directed at academics and civil servants, focusing on the role of liberal constitutionalism in the architecture of the EU’s constitutional system; - a series of webinars addressing the place of fundamental rights in the EU’s constitutional order with a strong focus on interdisciplinarity and comparison; - 3 MOOCs; - 2 academic workshops and a final conference aimed at promoting dialogue and the exchange of views between academics and civil servants; - 3 Q&A events aimed at groups of citizens.