Programme and website for the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) Global Roundtable ‘Democracy 2020: Assessing Constitutional Decay, Breakdown, and Renewal Worldwide’.
Originally envisaged as a 2-day event in Melbourne, the event was re-imagined as a series of 9 inter-connected webinars across 2 weeks, from 18-26 November 2020. This landmark online event featured 50 speakers from 5 continents.
At the end of what has been an acutely challenging year for democracy, this Roundtable aimed to provide a moment to pause and reflect, not only on 2020, but to look back on the past 10 years, and contemplate the future. To take the long view, from a truly global perspective.
The Roundtable’s 9 webinars were devoted to an array of themes including global and regional overviews, challenges from algorithmic governance to vote suppression, understudied countries, key actors like courts, parliaments and parties, and possible remedies and renewal of our democratic systems.
Webinar 1 - Global Challenges: Threats & Resilience – 18 November
Webinar 2 - Global Challenges: The Big Picture – 18 November
Webinar 3 - Americas: Constitutional Decay, Breakdown & Resilience – 19 November
Webinar 4 - Middle East & Africa: Constitutionalism, Corruption & Courts – 19 November
Webinar 5 - Asia: Non-Linear Constitutional Pathways – 24 November
Webinar 6 - Europe: Constitutional Impatience & Uncertainty – 24 November
Webinar 7 - Asia: Spotlight on India & Sri Lanka – 25 November
Webinar 8 - Europe: Spotlight on Hungary & Poland – 25 November
webinar 9 - Saving Constitutional Democracy: Remedies & Renewal – 26 November
The speakers, from some 30 states across the world, included both established and emerging scholars and practitioners for an inclusive conversation that brought fresh insights to the intensifying debate about constitutional democracy’s health and future.
All speakers have produced a 2000-word paper, published together as a Blog Symposium jointly hosted on the Roundtable website and the IACL-AIDC Blog.
You can access the website here
You can download the programme here
Professor Wojciech Sadurski & Associate Professor Tom Gerald Daly
Convenors
Co-Organisers
Professor Wojciech Sadurski
Challis Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Sydney and Professor at the University of Warsaw, member of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) Executive Committee, and author of Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Associate Professor Tom Gerald Daly
Deputy Director of Melbourne School of Government, Co-Editor of the IACL-AIDC Blog, and Director of Democratic Decay & Renewal (DEM-DEC; www.democratic-decay.org).