On 12-17 November 2015, BBCJ members took part at the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention in Washington. The agenda of the Convention also included a session of the European Judicial Network of the Federalist Society.
BBCJ was represented by the President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia – George Papuashvili, President of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania – Dainius Žalimas, President of the Constitutional Court of Moldova – Alexandru Tănase, and the judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine – Stanislav Shevchuk.
Representatives of BBCJ thus honoured the invitation of the Executive Vice-President of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, Leonard Leo, to attend the sessions of the Convention. It is an event where there are traditionally invited judges from the European Court of Human Rights as well as Presidents and representatives from the Constitutional Courts of European countries.
The program of this year meeting of the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers included presentations and discussions and official reception of more than 1300 lawyers and judges from the whole America.
During 14-17 November, a session of the European Judicial Network of the Federalist Society was held. Within this session representatives of the American legal community and judges of the European constitutional courts (Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, and Ukraine), the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights took part.
The session of the European Judicial Network touched upon the following issues:
1) Freedom of expression of opinions and media in Central and Eastern Europe;
2) The importance of the role of constitutional courts in determining the limits of freedom of expression and association in the light of hybrid propaganda war;
3) Education of citizens: the possibility of national courts in promoting constitutionalism, rule of law and respect for justice;
4) Right for conscious refuse from health and government administration;
5) The independence of judges after retirement and possibility to continue their career in the judicial system.
The Presidents and representatives from the Constitutional Courts of Georgia, Moldova, Lithuania, and Ukraine also discussed about their future activities and new joint initiatives within BBCJ.
