CORE Constitutional Law Seminar “Constitutionalism Reconfigured”
Turku University Faculty of Law held an international conference “Constitutionalism Reconfigured” on constitutional law. The purpose of the conference was to explore the shift from legislative supremacy to rights-based constitutionalism and its implications for the study of constitutionalism and the relationships between law, politics and culture.
The conference was organized by CORE Research Group led by Prof Veli-Pekka Viljanen.
The conference explored in four sessions themes such as “Evaluation of Constitutional Reforms”, “Conflicts of Tradition and Renewal” and “Interplay between Textual and Cultural Levels of Change and External Factors”.
The key-note speech was delivered by Prof Dawn Oliver. “Discussing the position in the UK nearly 20 years after a set of major constitutional changes was introduced illustrates some differences between our two systems, their politics and their cultures”, Prof Oliver considered. “As far as the UK is concerned there is a divergence between the prevalent legal culture and political and popular cultures. As I understand it this has not happened in Finland. While the courts and legal practitioners in the UK have adjusted well to the Human Rights Act 1998 and the maintenance of the legal supremacy of the UK Parliament which the Act provides for, public opinion in many circles is resistant to the Act, and the political parties, especially the Conservatives who are now in government, are deeply divided over it. “
Among the speakers were Prof Dawn Oliver (University College London), Prof Veli-Pekka Viljanen (University of Turku), Senior Lecturer Sophie Boyron (University of Birmingham), Lecturer Dr Cormac Mac Amhlaigh (University of Edinburgh), Prof Juha Lavapuro (University of Turku), Researcher Johannes Heikkonen (University of Turku), Lecturer Dr Anna Petrig (University of Basel), Research Fellow Anders Narvestad (University of Oslo), Senior Lecturer Dr Janne Salminen (University of Turku), Researcher Dr Anu Mutanen (University of Helsinki) and Prof Tuomas Ojanen (University of Helsinki).
