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Across many democracies, liberal constitutionalism has come under pressure from democratic backsliding, antipluralist politics, institutional erosion and forms of populist mobilisation that challenge both the authority and legitimacy of constitutional constraints. In some settings this has taken the form of direct rule-of-law erosion and institutional capture; in others it has appeared more through democratic distrust, hostility to technocratic governance, dissatisfaction with inherited constitutional settlements and the weakening of the social foundations on which liberal constitutionalism long relied. At the same time, the challenge is not only institutional or political, but also intellectual: decisionist currents remain powerful and the claim that constitutional norms may be set aside in the name of popular sovereignty continues to exert real force across many constitutional democracies. Nor is the danger confined to anti-constitutional projects alone: efforts at democratic or constitutional restoration may themselves slide into authoritarian reflexes, relying on exceptional measures, simplified claims of political necessity, or unchecked assertions of constituent power and in doing so risk reproducing or even entrenching autocratic modes of governance.

The Summer University starts from the proposition that the problem is not only how to resist erosion or repair damage, but how constitutionalism itself must be rethought under these altered conditions.

The week combines common sessions, faculty-led breakout seminars and invited conversations with key actors from the Hungarian constitutional context.