The MCC Center for Constitutional Politics is thrilled to announce an exceptionally rich and diverse programme for the autumn semester, featuring a major international conference and a series of engaging research seminars with leading international scholars. We invite all interested students, researchers, and academics to join us for a semester of stimulating intellectual exchange.
International Conference: The Heart of the Constitution – Exploring the Power of Preambles
Date: 10–11 December 2025
The semester's flagship event will be a two-day international conference focusing on the legal theory and comparative analysis of constitutional preambles. Featuring keynote addresses by Jonathan Gienapp (Stanford University) and Paul Cliteur (University of Leiden), the event will bring together leading experts to discuss the role, interpretation, and practical significance of preambles in constitutional systems worldwide.
Confirmed speakers include: Justin Frosini (Johns Hopkins University), Nomi Claire Lazar (University of Ottawa), Balázs Fekete (ELTE Faculty of Law), Adeno Addis (Tulane Law School), Asanga Welikala (Edinburgh Law School), Jakub Babuska (Edinburgh Law School), Gonzalo Candia (Catholic University of Chile), George Varughese (University of South Wales), Juliane Muller (IDEA), Frane Staničić (University of Zagreb), Bogdan Szlachta (Jagiellonian University), Kálmán Pócza (MCC), and Márton Sulyok (MCC).
Research Seminar Series
Our research seminar series continues with distinguished speakers from across the globe, offering deep dives into pressing constitutional questions.
2 October 2025, 5:30 PM
Stephen Tierney (University of Edinburgh): Constituent Power in Federal States
The seminar will address federalism as a familiar yet theoretically neglected form of government. The discussion will explore why this neglect is both unsatisfactory in conceptual terms and problematic for constitutional practitioners, obscuring the core meaning and purpose of federalism as a specific model of constitutionalism. The lecture aims to rethink the idea and practice of federalism, proposing a root and branch recalibration of the federal contract.
Stephen Tierney is Professor of Constitutional Theory at the University of Edinburgh, an Honorary King’s Counsel, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has served as Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Constitution Committee since 2015.
16 October 2025, 5:30 PM
Stefan Auer (University of Hong Kong): European Disunion: Democracy, Sovereignty and the Politics of Emergency
This lecture will explore the multiple crises of the European project, examining the underlying factor of its bold attempt to overcome the age of nation-states. The discussion will focus on how, when left unchecked, supranational institutions can become ever more bureaucratic, and how the logic of technocracy is pitted against the democratic impulse that the European Union is supposed to embody.
Stefan Auer is Professor at the University of Hong Kong and a two-time former Jean Monnet Chair holder.
4 November 2025, 5:30 PM
Dieter Grimm (Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin): A View from the Bench: Personal Reflections on the Practice of Constitutional Adjudication
This research seminar will serve as the inaugural lecture of our new event series, "A View from the Bench," which features judges from constitutional, supreme, or international courts. This unique format provides personal insights into the practice of adjudication. We are honored to welcome Professor Dieter Grimm, a distinguished former judge of the German Federal Constitutional Court and a towering figure in constitutional law, as the first guest of this series. This is a rare chance to hear how individual perspectives and experiences shape the monumental decisions made at the court.
Dieter Grimm was a Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany from 1987 to 1998. He is a Professor of Public Law at Humboldt University Berlin and a Permanent Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
Save the Date: Early 2026 Seminars
Looking ahead, we are pleased to announce the first two research seminars of the new year. More details will be shared closer to the dates
- 29 January 2026: David Edmonds (University of Oxford): Effective Altruism: A Philosophical Reckoning
- 19 February 2026: Wolfgang Streeck (Max Planck Institute): Taking Back Control? States and State Systems After Globalism
