On 10–11 October 2026, Union University Law School Belgrade hosted the first, inaugural conference of the Balkans Chapter of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S), titled “Public Law in Challenging Times: Governance, Resilience, and Europeanization in the 21st Century.” The conference was co-organised with the ICON-S Balkans Chapter and the Rule of Law Programme South East Europe of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
The first conference of the newly established Chapter has already become one of the most significant public law gatherings in the region. Over two days, the programme featured two plenary sessions and as many as 24 parallel panels, bringing together more than 120 participants from across the region and around the world, including participants from the United States, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation.
The first plenary session, “From Constitutionalism to Militant Constitutionalism: Can Judges Change the Rules of the Game?”, and the second, “Governance in Times of Crisis”, featured some of the most distinguished scholars of constitutional and public law, as well as other fields: András Sajó, Jo Shaw, Bojan Bugarič, Matej Avbelj, Marko Milanović, Igor Štiks, Ruzha Smilova, Daniel Smilov, Boško Tripković, Jens Woelk, Miodrag Jovanović, and Professor Violeta Beširević of our Law School. Their presentations and the discussions that followed made the conference exceptionally rich and stimulating.
Participants addressed the most pressing questions of contemporary public law: the exercise of public power in times of crisis, the resilience of democratic institutions and the rule of law, and the process of Europeanization and its consequences for the legal systems of the Balkan states.
The conference brought together professors, researchers, early-career scholars, and practitioners. Its success affirms the reputation of Union University Law School Belgrade as one of the region’s leading centres for public law scholarship and a meeting point for the domestic and international academic community. The Law School is proud that the ICON-S Balkans Chapter began its work here in Belgrade, at Union.
We owe special thanks to Professor Violeta Beširević, who initiated and led the organisation of the conference, and to her co-convenors Maja Sahadžić of Utrecht University and Martin Belov of the University of Sofia. We also thank the members of the Scientific and Organising Committees, as well as all participants and partners who made this conference such a memorable event.
