Belgrade 2026

The 21st century confronts public law with structural pressures that are neither episodic nor isolated. Financial instability, democratic backsliding, pandemics, migration, climate change, armed conflict, and technological transformation increasingly overlap and reinforce one another. These developments challenge not only specific legal doctrines, but also the institutional architecture, normative foundations, and transnational embeddedness of public law itself.

This conference approaches these developments through three interconnected perspectives. First, it examines how public power is exercised under conditions of crisis. Second, it reflects on resilience as a constitutional response to systemic stress. Third, it explores how Europeanization, particularly in the Balkan region, acts as both a transformative force and a structural stress test for domestic public law systems. Together, these perspectives invite a comprehensive reflection on how public law governs, adapts, and preserves democratic integrity in challenging times.

Governance in Times of Crisis: Contemporary governance increasingly unfolds in a state of normalized exception. Emergency legislation, executive discretion, accelerated regulatory processes, and institutional improvisation have become recurring features of public decision-making.

This section explores how crisis conditions reshape the distribution and exercise of public power. It asks whether crisis governance remains exceptional, or whether it is becoming a structural mode of governing. We especially welcome doctrinal, comparative, empirical, and theoretical perspectives on the transformation of governance in challenging times.

Resilience, Rule of Law, and Democratic Integrity: If crisis is structural, resilience becomes essential. Yet resilience is not a neutral concept. In public law, it may refer to institutional durability, judicial independence, constitutional identity, societal trust. At the same time, resilience rhetoric can justify the concentration of power or the expansion of executive authority.

This theme examines resilience as both a normative ideal and a contested legal concept. It asks whether public law systems can preserve democratic integrity while adapting to profound and continuous stress. This perspective particularly welcomes contributions engaging legal philosophy, constitutional theory, and interdisciplinary approaches.

Europeanization and the Transformation of Public Law: The Balkan region offers a particularly revealing lens through which to examine the relationship between crisis and resilience. Europeanization operates here under differentiated conditions: Some states are members of the European Union, others are candidates, and others remain outside the Union while still deeply influenced by European legal norms. In EU Member States, Europeanization may generate tensions around primacy, constitutional identity, and conditionality. In accession countries, it is often reshaping constitutional structures in anticipation of accession. This differentiated landscape makes the Balkans a structural test case for multi-level constitutionalism. Europeanization may strengthen governance and resilience, but it may also produce tensions between domestic constitutional autonomy and supranational authority.

This theme invites contributions that examine Europeanization as a dynamic and uneven process across the Balkan region and nationally. Rather than treating European integration as a linear or homogenizing force, we encourage critical engagement with its legal, political, and normative implications. We particularly welcome contributions offering doctrinal, comparative, empirical, or theoretical engagement with Europeanization in the Balkan context.