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'Peter Leyland is currently Professor of Public Law at London
Metropolitan University and visiting Professor of Public Law at the
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He
graduated from the University of East Anglia and the University of
London. Prof. Leyland has published widely in the field of UK constitutional
and administrative law, comparative constitutional law and on
Thailand's constitutional system. The subject matter of his research
has included: devolution particularly in comparative perspective,
freedom of information, utility regulation, executive accountability.
He has written the first volume on the Constitution of the United
Kingdom (2007) in the Hart series 'Constitutional Systems of the
World', which he co-edits with Professor Andrew Harding. His
publications also include two edited collections and (with Dr Gordon
Anthony) OUP's most popular textbook on UK Administrative Law, the
sixth edition of which was published in October 2008. As well as
frequent involvement in conferences Peter Leyland is a visiting professor at
the universities of Bologna, Padua and Ferrara in Italy; at the
National Development Administration, the Council of State and the
Administrative Courts in Thailand; and at the University of Victoria
in Canada
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The lecture will discuss the Israeli electoral system as a case-study which reflects conflicting considerations of representation and governability, and then use the recent elections which took place on February 10th, 2009, as an example.
In general, Israel has an electoral system based on nation-wide proportional representation. Accordingly, the number of seats which every list receives in the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) is proportional to the number of voters who voted for it. The only limitation is the 2% qualifying threshold. The proportional system is known also in other countries, and historically it was preferred because of its contribution to the expression of the multicultural nature of Israeli society. However, due to the low threshold, the elections tend to lead to a very diverse Knesset with many small parties, and thus does not enable governability.
The lecture will also review proposals for reform, including proposals for regional elections, direct elections of the Prime Minister and more.
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The Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development selected Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center students and University of Bologna Faculty of Law students to participate in a three-day study trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina during the February semester recess.
The aim of the study trip is to give students the opportunity to meet with representatives of organisations currently engaged in post-conflict reconstruction, human rights issues and democratic development. It will show students some of the challenges involved in a real world post-conflict situation.
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Andrew Petter Q.C., LL.B. (UVic) 1981, LL.M. (Cantab) 1982, is professor and former dean of law at the University of Victoria. Prior to joining UVic Law in 1986, he taught at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and practiced constitutional law with the Government of Saskatchewan. From 1991 to 2001, he served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia and held numerous cabinet portfolios, including Minister of Intergovernmental Relations, Minister of Finance, Minister of Advanced Education, and Attorney General. His main fields of interest are constitutional law, civil liberties and democratic reform. He has written extensively on these topics, and is regarded as one of Canada’s leading constitutional authorities.
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Now entering its seventh year, this 10 days intensive program will attract 50 students from across Eastern Europe to Kragujevac, Serbia, on July 5 - 14, 2008. The Youth Organizing Institute wants to encourage and empower active agents of democracy in the extended balkan region - the so called region of transformation.
Under the leadership of experienced local and international community organizers, participants will spend one week developing the personal knowledge and skills necessary for them to view their environments critically and be responsibly active for democratic values - work against racism and exclusion - enabling them to build civil society in their communities and support each other across the communities in a network of decisively dynamic young people.
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Global terror and the fight against it has prompted a reexamination of the proper balance between the scope and protection of human rights and increased security needs. Does the war on terror give rise to emergency conditions such as those prevalent in ordinary war? Or, can it be fought under ordinary conditions and full protection of human rights? Based on an analysis of cases arising from the US's, Germany's and the UK's fight against terror after 9/11, and of cases arising from Israel's responses to Palestinian suicide bombers, it will be argued that governments fighting terror often overreact and tend to unduly curtail human rights. The war on terror fosters special conditions, conditions of "stress", that fall somewhere between ordinary and emergency conditions. Conditions of stress require some readjustments through judicious rebalancing rather than substantial curtailing of the protection of human rights.
Michel Rosenfeld is the Justice Sydney L. Robins Professor of Human Rights, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York City
He presently holds the Chaire Internationale Blaise Pascal (2007 - 2008) (Endowed research chair granted to foreign scholars by the government of the greater Paris region).
He has been the President: of the International Association of Constitutional Law (1999-2004); and is presently the President . U.S. Association of Constitutional Law. (2004 - )
He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press)
He has been awarded many Honors including the Knight of the Order of the French Legion of Honor (June 2004).
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The eighth edition of Human Rights Nights, Festival of Cinema and arts dedicated to human rights issues, is dedicated to Resistance - (Sopra)Vivere , in homage to all those who fight in order to survive in situations of war, colonialism, slavery, poverty, and against all the difficulties and alienations of the daily life in the contemporary societies. We refer to the term resistance in its widest sense, focusing on the strength of those involved, which grows through their actions of challenge and human dignity. The Festival does not introduce victims but warriors of peace and justice, who are able to communicate an alternative path to that of violence. Each year the works introduced within the festival increasingly reflect the interconnection between groups of people who share the same social difficulties, a movement, that thanks to this solidarity are now global in nature, and in turn those involved feel less alone in their daily resistance. Also as a small festival of cinema in Bologna, Italy, can be a point of reference and inspiration: through the net of international relations established and the acknowledgment of the festival from the international industry of the cinema of human rights and from part of the local communities. Human Rights Nights is increasingly achieving its goal to become a kaleidoscope of various artistic expressions that testify to the courage and give example of people who resist and survive in extreme conditions of injustice, poverty and danger.
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Nothing will be achieved without individuals and nothing will last without institutions. With these words quoted from one of the founding fathers of the today’s European Union, Robert Schuman. Olof Ehrenkrona presents some important factors behind successful transition democracies. Real cases, like the Estonian transition in the early nineties compared with the Russian case and the Georgian after the Rose revolution, are analyzed. Olof Ehrenkrona deals with the role of the charismatic individual reformer in the early transition face and the institutions in the state building process. One of the key issues in the transition process is to forming permanent and stable institutions as well as creating dynamic conditions for civil society.
Ambassador Olof Ehrenkrona is senior advisor to the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs. In the ministers’ office he is dealing with issues regarding globalization.
In the early 90s, during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transformation of Eastern and Central Europe, he was head of policy planning in the Swedish Prime Ministers Office and between 1995 and 2006 CEO in a private consulting company.
Olof Ehrenkrona has published a number of books about Swedish political and economic history in 20th century.
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The Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development invites Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center students and University of Bologna Faculty of Law students to participate in a three-day study trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina during the February semester recess.
The aim of the study trip is to give students the opportunity to meet with representatives of organisations currently engaged in post-conflict reconstruction, human rights issues and democratic development. It will show students some of the challenges involved in a real world post-conflict situation.
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Stefano Bianchini is Professor of East European Politics and History at the University of Bologna, School of Political Science "Roberto Ruffilli", Forlì campus.
He is also the scientific co-director of the European Regional Master in Democracy and Human Rights of the Universities of Sarajevo and Bologna, the director of the Institute for Studies on East Central and Balkan Europe, at the University of Bologna and currently Vice president of the Association for Studies of Nationalities (ASN) based at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New York..
In the fall 2001 he has been a Visiting Fellow of the Columbia Research Institute of Scholars at Reid Hall and Maison des Science de L'Homme in Paris for an international collective research project on «Partitions and Dialogue».
Since 1992 he is also the central coordinator of the «Europe and the Balkans International Network», one of the ancient networks established with the support of the European Commission and dealing with issues related to South East Europe and Eastern Europe. Since 1995 he is the Scientific Director of the Advanced Cervia International Summer School on "Post-communist Transition and European Integration Processes" of the University of Bologna, with takes place every year with the support of the European Union, CEI and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The School has a specific program of Human Rights and political institutions, which has later generated the European Regional MA in Sarajevo..
As an expert of Balkan issues and particularly on Yugoslavia and its successor states in politics (particularly nationalism, weak states and security, transition), contemporary history of communism, and international relations (regional policies, EU enlargement, relations between Italy and the Balkans), he attended several international meetings in Europe and United States focussed on the topics of his own concern. He published 6 books so far, edited or co-edited 19 books with prominent scholars such as Craig Nation, George Schöpflin, Paul Shoup, Susan Woodward, and others, as well as more than 100 articles and reviews in different languages..
Stefano Bianchini is Editor in Chief of the English Series on the Balkan and East-Central Europe of the «International Network Europe & the Balkans», Longo Publ. House, Ravenna. He is member of the Editorial Board of «Nationalities Papers», the journal of the Association for Studies of Nationalities, of the International Academic Board of the «Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans» and of Editorial Board of the Italian Review of Geopolitics «Limes». Stefano Bianchini is also a Member of the AAASS (the American association of Slavic Studies), the AIS (The Italian Association of Slavic Studies) and other associations.
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Dana H. Allin is Professional Lecturer in European Studies, Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Center; editor of "Survival", and Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). A graduate of Yale University, he worked as a Europe-based financial journalist before earning an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He was visiting assistant professor in European Studies and American Foreign Policy at the SAIS centers in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C., a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow, and Deputy Director of both the Aspen Institute Berlin and the International Commission on the Balkans (a joint project of Aspen Berlin and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
Dr Allin is the author of Cold War Illusions: America, Europe and Soviet Power, 1969-1989 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994); NATO’s Balkan Interventions, Adelphi Paper 347 (Oxford University Press for the IISS, 2002); and a co-author of Unfinished Peace: Report of the International Commission on the Balkans (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1996). His numerous articles include commentary in The International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
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Constitutional and Supreme Courts often play a central role in the process of transition to democracy. Frosini will give a brief overview of the model of constitutional adjudication provided for by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in Annex 4 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia (GFAP). He will then go on to illustrate some of the leading cases of the Constitutional Court underlining the effects they have had on the evolution of the legal framework of the country.
Justin O. Frosini is the director of the CCSDD and editor of the CCSDD Lectures Series (together with Lucio Pegoraro). Frosini is a Lecturer of Public Law in the Faculty of Economics of the "Luigi Bocconi" University, Milan and has a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Bologna.
Professor Frosini is a member of the editorial committee of the comparative law journal "Diritto pubblico comparato ed europeo" and of the Italian constitutional law journal "Quaderni Costituzionali". His fields of interest are comparative constitutional law, constitutional reform, local government, devolution and federalism.
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The seminar will trace and analyse the reasons and consequences of the military coup of 19 September 2006 and the drafting of the 2007
constitution, Thailand's 18th since 1932.
Andrew Harding is Professor of Asia-Pacific Law at the Faculty of Law / Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives of the University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
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Susanna Mancini is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bologna. The seminar is chaired by Prof. Erik Jones, SAIS Bologna Center
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Zarije Seizovic, PhD, is a lecturer at the University of Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The seminar is presented by Dr Justin Frosini, Director of the CCSDD.
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Every year the CCSDD and the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade organize a Summer School that brings together students and academics from various countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including the Balkans. During the Summer School, students and faculty discuss the constitutional implications of EU expansion and the lessons that can be learnt from the founding members of the European Economic Community (EEC) as well as the reforms that need to be implemented in what are often termed as "consolidated democracies".
The one-week Summer School takes place at the end of July and is open to graduate students in Law and Political Science.
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Now entering its seventh year, this 10 days intensive program will attract 60 students from across South Eastern Europe to Serbia and Montenegro, on June 30 - July 9, 2007. The curriculum will focus on community organizing and conflict resolution techniques.
Under the leadership of experienced local and international community organizers, participants will spend one week developing the personal knowledge and skills necessary for them to become effective leaders in their communities through a conflict management and community-organizing curriculum. Imbedded in the format of the Institute is a strategy by which students design projects to address one particular issue of need in their home community. Following the Institute, the participants will then implement the project in their home communities and be required to follow procedures for reporting and evaluation of the projects' progress.
Find out more by selecting Youth Organizing Institute in the menu.
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Massimo Diana is Local Governance Portfolio Manager with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Gianni Rufini is an expert of international aid, former Director of VOICE, the Network of European NGOs working in Emergency and Humanitarian Aid (1997-2001). He is also Associate Fellow of the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit at the University of York.
The event is organized within the 2007 Human Right Nights Film Festival.
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Mario Boffo is the Italian Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen.
The Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD) was established at the G8 Summit at Sea Island, in June 2004 as one of the main initiatives of the “Plan of Action” adopted within the framework of the “Partnership for Progress and a Common Future” with the countries of the BMENA region (Broader Middle East and North Africa). It was envisaged that DAD would bring together in a collaborative and transparent environment willing governments, civil society groups and other organisations from G-8, EU and others, and countries in the region, in order to support the development of democracy. Italy, Turkey and Yemen co-sponsor the initiative.
The event is organized within the 2007 Human Right Nights Film Festival.
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Human Rights Nights is a festival of cinema and arts dedicated to human rights, created in 2001 by a group of Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center students to advance public awareness on human rights issues using documentary films and lectures. It included six films and brought four international film producers to Bologna. During the years the festival has increased its size, scope and importance over the years, and has flourished in a spirit of community collaboration.
We present around 50 films including fiction, documentaries, short films, animation and mise en scene, from film-makers from all over the world. These films are further accompanied by debates, photographic exhibitions and contemporary arts, music and fashion events, and thematic focuses. In 2007, the festival recorded more than 8000 attendees and significant media attention, including both TV and press.
Human Rights Nights International Film Festival is supported by Cineteca Bologna, the Municipality of Bologna, Alma Mater Studiorum-Università Bologna / UniboCultura, and the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development / Johns Hopkins University.
Find out more at www.humanrightsnights.org.
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The Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development invites Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center students and University of Bologna Faculty of Law students to participate in a three-day study trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, during the February semester recess.
The aim of the study trip is to give students the opportunity to meet with representatives of organizations currently engaged in post-conflict reconstruction, human rights issues and democratic development. It will show students some of the challenges involved in a real world post-conflict situation.
Find out more at www.ccsdd.org/trips/index.cfm
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Participants:
Giuseppe De Vergottini (Bologna),
Carlo Casonato (Trento),
Carmela Decaro (Bari),
Tommaso Edoardo Frosini (Sassari),
Tania Groppi (Siena),
Alessandro Torre (Bari),
Luciano Vandelli (Bologna),
Lucio Pegoraro (Bologna),
Angelo Rinella (Roma-Lumsa),
Luigi Volpe (Bari).
Organizing Committee:
Luca Mezzetti (Bologna),
Marina Calamo Specchia (Bari),
Susanna Mancini (Bologna),
Justin Frosini (Bologna),
Michele Belletti. Speakers and discussants from the United Kingdom:
Noreen Burrows (University of Glasgow),
Robert Hazell (University College – London),
Chris Himsworth (University of Edinburgh),
Patricia Hogwood (Westminster University - London),
Charlie Jeffery (University of Edinburgh),
George W.Jones (London School of Economics),
Peter Leyland (London Metropolitan University).
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Robert Hazell is Professor of Law at the University College, London.
Peter Leyland is a full Professor of Law at London Metropolitan University
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The event is chaired by Prof. Giuseppe de Vergottini, Full professor of Law at the University of Bologna.
Participants:
Ambassador Vasco Valente – Portuguese Ambassador to Italy; Jorge Miranda, University of Lisbon;
Lucio Pegoraro, University of Bologna;
Anna Ciammariconi, University of Genova;
Nino Olivetti Rason, University of Padua.
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Dr Joseph Reniui Vilamala is a Lecturer of Political Science at the University of Barcelona and at the Open University of Catalonia
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Michael Leigh is Director-General of the European Commission’s Enlargement Directorate General.
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Publications