Constitutionalism under Stress Essays in Honour of Wojciech Sadurski

Constitutionalism under Stress reflects on comparative constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe through the work of eminent constitutional scholar Wojciech Sadurski. The book examines the current decline of liberal democracies and populist challenges to the rule of law in the region - events that Sadurski predicted early on in his writings about Jörg Haider affair in Austria and the introduction of Article 7 TEU by the Amsterdam Treaty. Sadurski's work has chronicled the transition from concern for the most basic of human rights under authoritarian rule to the challenges of democratic governance. The compelling rights discourse of an earlier period gave way to claims of abuse of majoritarian prerogatives as the hopes of liberal democracy encountered the power of illiberalism. The theoretical responses offered for the preservation of liberal democracy, in light of the current turbulence regarding the rule of law in the region, produces a far reaching and effective reference tool on matters of constitutional capture and illiberal democracy.

Dr. Uladzislau Belavusau is Senior Researcher in European Law at the T.M.C. Asser Institute, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands). Previously he was Assistant Professor of EU law and human rights at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is the Principal Investigator for the Netherlands in the EU-sponsored MELA (Memory Laws in European and Comparative Perspectives) research consortium, author of Freedom of Speech: Importing European and US Constitutional Models in Transitional Democracies (Routledge 2013), as well as co-editor of Law and Memory: Towards Legal Governance of History (Cambridge University Press 2017) and EU Anti-Discrimination Law Beyond Gender (Hart 2018). Dr. Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her policy and legal expertise include the fields of anti-discrimination law, constitutional law, freedom of speech and memory laws. Since September 2016, she has been a Principal Investigator for Poland in the MELA (Memory Laws in European and Comparative Perspectives), EU-sponsored research consortium. In 2015 she became an expert of the Council of Europe in Help in the 28 Project and also joined the Academic Advisory Board of the Community of Democracies. Since January 2018 she has acted as a member of Advisory Board of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists.