Religion, Illiberal Constitutionalism, and Fundamental Rights (ReLiCon)

• Department of Law

The EUI Constitutionalism and Politics Working Group hosts a session with Dr. Ivo Gruev, Visiting Fellow at the EUI Law Department.

Abstract:

The interdisciplinary collaborative research project ReLiCon, led by a team of researchers from the Hertie School, the CEU and the EUI, explores how religion-based arguments and value claims reach constitutional and apex courts, and how they impact constitutional and judicial politics of fundamental rights in East and Central Europe (ECE). ReLiCon’s pilot phase focuses on the ways in which different constitutional texts and judicial interpretation have become venues for continued or unprecedented contestation of rights and liberties through the use of Orthodox Christian and Catholic value claims in Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria, with view to extending the comparative sample to other jurisdictions in ECE and beyond. In doing so, the research identifies (1) factors / forces that create opportunities for the pursuit of religious narratives that feed the retrogression of fundamental rights and democratic backsliding and (2) factors / forces that boost democratic resilience / halt the retrogression of fundamental rights (and the spread of illiberal democracy). The study aims to generate both comparative and transnational insights into religions’ influence on constitutional contestation and lay the foundations for a larger investigation on the role that organized majority / (de facto) state religion plays in democratic backsliding and the rise of illiberal democracy.

Bio: 

Dr Ivo Gruev is a comparative constitutional scholar and postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Fundamental Rights, Hertie School. His current work focuses on the erosion of liberal constitutionalism and the changing relationship between governments, courts, and fundamental rights in both established and non-consolidated democracies. He is visiting the EUI as part of a Re:constitution Fellowship with a project that explores the question of whether the backlash against gender equality that has manifested, with varying degrees of success, before different constitutional courts in Eastern Europe can be seen as a challenge to the rule of law in this region. Dr. Gruev also serves as principal investigator on the CIVICA-funded project 'ReLiCon: Religion, Illiberal Constitutionalism and the Retrogression of Fundamental Rights in East Central Europe'. He holds a doctorate (DPhil) and a Magister Juris from the University of Oxford, and a German law degree (1. Staatsexamen) from the Humboldt University in Berlin.