On December 4, 2025, the Faculty of Public Administration at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice and the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava organized a workshop titled “The Constitution of the Slovak Republic as a Symbol of Constitutional Patriotism? (The Integrative and Polarizing Potential of the Slovak Constitution), at which participants were welcomed by Assoc. Prof. JUDr. Jozef Vozár, CSc., Director of the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and Assoc. Prof. JUDr. Mgr. Michal Jesenko, PhD., Dean of the Faculty of Public Administration at UPJŠ in Košice.
The opening remarks and closing summary of the discussion were delivered by Prof. Dr. Ivan Halász, DSc., and Prof. JUDr. Ladislav Orosz, CSc. The discussion was moderated by Prof. JUDr. PhDr. Tomáš Gábriš, PhD., LL.M., MA
In addition to prominent representatives of the academic community, former and current members of the Slovak National Council and the National Council of the Slovak Republic, former members of the Slovak government, and former and current judges of the Constitutional Court of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic and the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, the invitation to the moderated discussion was also accepted by the President of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, JUDr. Ivan Fiačan, PhD. and the Vice-President of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, JUDr. Ľuboš Szigeti.
The discussion focused primarily on the following topics:
► The circumstances surrounding the adoption of the Slovak Constitution and constitutional amendments, and their impact on its current social acceptance and authority
► The strengths and weaknesses of the Constitution in terms of addressing political and social crises
► The historical and ideological narrative of the Constitution, the extent of its ideologization, its potential for value integration and polarization, and the pitfalls of this process
► The relationship of Slovak political elites to Slovak constitutional history and the current Constitution. Potential proposals for its amendment
► The relationship of Slovak constitutional consciousness to previous statehoods—what can be built upon from the previous Hungarian, Czechoslovak, and independent Slovak past?
Thank you for your active participation and stimulating discussion.
The workshop was held in connection with the VEGA grant project No. 1/048/24/13 “Strengthening Constitutional Awareness and the Authority of the Constitution in the Central European Context,” led by Prof. Dr. Ivan Halász, DSc. With the consent of the discussion participants, the organizers will prepare a record of the proceedings, which will be included in a scientific collection published as part of the aforementioned grant project.
