Michal Bobek, special guest has arrived for the roundtable at JUSTIN. The discussion focused on the latest case law of the ECJ and the ECtHR, as well as on the issue of informal judicial institutions.
It was our greatest pleasure to welcome Michal Bobek, the Justice of the Czech Supreme Administrative Court and former Advocate General at the ECJ. Michal Bobek and JUSTIN team members were examining the recent case law of the ECJ and ECtHR. Although an overarching aim of the roundtable was to discuss the rule of law crisis in Poland, Hungary, and Romania, the topics covered at the seminar were not limited to these three particular cases. Instead, our members had an opportunity to debate broader themes such as principles of judicial independence and accountability, consequences of the case-law on judicial (self-)governance at the national level, court-packing practices and their repercussions or the role of informal judicial institutions, and an extent to which they are addressed by the supranational courts.
What are informal judicial institutions, how do they affect functioning of courts, and what is their impact on democracy? These were some topics that the INFINITY team discussed with invited experts during a workshop from 20 to 22 October 2022. Over twenty academics assembled in the magnificent rooms of the CEELI institute, the Villa Grébovka in the heart of Prague.
For David Kosař, this is the second ERC-supported project. Five years ago it was a Starting grant thanks to which Kosař founded, at the Faculty of Law, the Judicial Studies Institute and focused on the study of the influence of judicial self-governance bodies on the selection of judges in Europe. The new grant will allow him and his colleagues to focus on new issues related to the judiciary.