This launch event for the ICON Symposium, “Women, gender, and constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe,” explores the particular ways in which constitutionalism has contributed to either the entrenchment or the subversion of gender hierarchies in post-state-socialist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In doing so, it examines how constitutional frameworks have affirmed or denied women and sexual minorities the right to equal citizenship in CEE.

The ICON Symposium focuses on eight “new member states” of the European Union: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The geographical focus on CEE fills a gap in existing English-language legal scholarship, which often looks at the region through single-country studies or treats it only marginally, in global or Western European comparisons. At the same time, the Symposium engages in dialogue with comparable large-scale projects focused on other world regions, contributing to a deeper understanding of CEE’s specificities and highlighting their broader relevance.

At this event, we will hear from several of the symposium’s contributors, who will present research on Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Slovakia. They will address a wide range of issues, including reproductive rights and family law; the reluctance of the Czech and Slovak constitutional courts to engage with complex gender-related cases (Section I); and the dynamics of illiberalism and anti-gender backlash in Hungary, Czechia, and Slovakia (Section II).

Please find the programme here: www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/event/symposium-women-gender-and-constitutionalism-central-and-eastern-europe