SPEAKERS

This Roundtable brings together 50 speakers from 5 continents, including IACL leaders and members, research and policy leaders, and emerging voices.

WEBINAR 1 18 November

GLOBAL CHALLENGES: THREATS & RESILIENCE

18 November 10.00am-12.30pm AEDT check global times here

Webinar 1 provides an overview of key challenges facing constitutionalism and democracy worldwide. From attacks on academic freedom to technological threats, from voter suppression to China’s declining culture of constitutionalism, a range of perspectives will together provide an impressionistic snapshot of global democracy.

WEBINAR 2 18 November

GLOBAL CHALLENGES: THE BIG PICTURE

18 November 7.00-9.30pm AEDT check global times here

Webinar 2 develops the discussion in Webinar 1 through further analysis of the crisis of liberal democracy and how we understand democracy. Discussion will include the diverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on existing populist tends, and in accelerating existing global trends such as algorithmic governance.

WEBINAR 3 19 November

AMERICAS: CONSTITUTIONAL DECAY, BREAKDOWN & RESILIENCE

19 November 10.00am-12.30pm AEDT check global times here

Webinar 3 seeks to further our understanding of the challenges facing constitutional democracy and constitution-building, and sources of resilience, through a focus on experiences and trends across the Americas, including Chile, Brazil, El Salvador and Canada.

WEBINAR 4 19 November

MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA: CONSTITUTIONALISM, CORRUPTION & COURTS

19 November 7.00-9.30pm AEDT check global times here

Webinar 4 switches the focus to the Middle East and Africa, both of which are understudied regions in global analysis of democracy, constitutional decay, and breakdown. The webinar begins with an overview of democracy in the Arab world, followed by case-studies focused on courts and corruption.

WEBINAR 5 24 November

ASIA: NON-LINEAR CONSTITUTIONAL PATHWAYS

24 November 1.00-3.30pm AEDT check global times here

Webinar 5, the first webinar of Week 2, will focus on the diverse and non-linear constitutional and democratic pathways of a range of understudied states across Asia: Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. The webinar ends with a comparative discussion of how courts’ approaches to religious clauses have empowered populist governments to adopt communally divisive policies, and of local democracy in Turkey.

WEBINAR 6 24 November

EUROPE: CONSTITUTIONAL IMPATIENCE & UNCERTAINTY

24 November 7.00-9.30pm AEDT check global times here

Webinar 6, the first of two webinars focused on Europe, includes a selection of case-studies of democratisation, constitutional change and constitutional decay in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Malta, Latvia and Lithuania, and comparison of judicial and electoral politics in states from Slovakia to North Macedonia to the UK.

WEBINAR 7 25 November

ASIA: SPOTLIGHT ON INDIA & SRI LANKA

25 November 3.00-5.30pm AEDT check global times here

Webinar 7 focuses on the two neighbouring states of India and Sri Lanka, discussing the health of constitutional democracy in each state through a variety of lenses, including judicial populism, party dominance, rights protection, and partisan constitution-making processes. Two presenters will focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

WEBINAR 8 25 November

EUROPE: SPOTLIGHT ON HUNGARY & POLAND

25 November 7.00-9.30pm AEDT check global times here

Webinar 8 builds on webinar 6 by providing fine-grained discussion of the two best-known cases of constitutional decay and breakdown in Europe: Hungary and Poland. This webinar will provide an opportunity for a stock-taking of 10 years of Fidesz rule in Hungary, and 5 years of Law and Justice party rule in Poland, examination of the means employed to attack the democratic system, and sources of pushback.

WEBINAR 9 26 November

SAVING CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY: REMEDIES & RENEWAL

26 November 7.00-9.30pm AEDT check global times here

The final webinar examines sources of resilience and renewal in contemporary democratic societies, from ‘toolkits’ to deal with authoritarian advances, to citizen-led processes of democratic revival, to international intervention. Strong emphasis is placed on what lessons can be learned from experiences across the Global South as well as the Global North.