Description
Legal culture has in recent years generated a lively scholarly discourse. Central and Eastern Europe presents a unique case study with shared historical experience and a future in the EU. But national constitutional identities have also received attention. We bring together scholars from different backgrounds, with different foci and methodologies. Legal culture has in recent years generated a lively scholarly discourse. This ranges from theoretical attempts to conceptualise and categorise legal cultures, to empirical efforts to measure it. Central and Eastern Europe presents a unique case study: shared experience of empires, of socialism, and a future in the EU, as well as life on the periphery bind the region together. At the same time, we are seeing a resurgence of the concepts of national legal and constitutional identities. These emphasise national characteristics and interests in the face of an ever-closer integration. Appropriately, this volume brings together scholars from different backgrounds to shed light on these issues using a range of different foci and methodologies.
Introduction
Áron Fábián & Márton Matyasovszky-Németh
Socio-Economic Conditions and the Intellectual Production of "Populist" Ideologies: A Turbulent Century in Hungary, 1930s-2020s
Chris Hann
Studying Central European Laws through the Legrand Perspective
Balázs Fekete
Looking for the Identity of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic
Peter Curos
Dynamic Concepts of Constitutional Identity through the Lens of Hume, Hobbes, and Selected Psychological Approaches
Adam Demczuk
Constitutional Identities in Central and Eastern Europe: The Periphery Paradox
Jozef Jencík
On Power, Violence, and Judicial Activism in Poland: The Janus-Faced Judiciary
Piotr Zaleski
Áron Fábián is a senior lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest. From 2021 to 2025, he served as Deputy Director of Bibó István College for Advanced Studies at ELTE. His main research interests are analytic legal philosophy and political philosophy, with a strong focus on incorporating socio-legal insights therein.
Márton Matyasovszky-Németh is a senior lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest, and research fellow at Széchenyi University, Györ. From 2021 to 2025, he served as Director of Bibó István College for Advanced Studies at ELTE. His research focuses on the localization of human rights, with particular emphasis on the role of social stability and social rights in socio-legal theory.
