The classes on April 24 and May 15 are closely connected.

In the first class, we are going to start with the general idea of peer review constitutionalism  - or constitutionalism beyond the state.

In order to understand the basic structure of the problem, I urge to read the short entry (Global Constitutionalism) by Anne Peters in the Encyclopedia of Political Thought:

Based on this, try to answer some basic questions: 

• What levels beyond the state can be relevant from the point of view of constitutionalism?
• What is the relevance of the ECHR, for example?
• What is the relevance of the EU?
• What are the differences between those two mechanisms?

I am also offering a very short excerpt from Somek, who explains his idea of peer-review constitutionalism (3.0):

In the second class (15/5), we will take a specific look at the role of peer-review constitutionalism with regard to constitutional issues in Poland and Hungary in the (roughly) last decade.

Please read the text by Tímea Drinóczi (Hungary) and Agnieszka Bień-Kacała (Poland) and try to answer the following questions:

• What constitutional problems have Poland and Hungary faced in the last 10-15 years?
• Why are international mechanisms even brought into the picture? Aren't the national mechanisms sufficient to deal with the problems?
• What are the strong and weak points of international mechanisms with regard to domestic constitutional issues?