Dr. Max Steuer
October 6, 2023 2023-10-11 10:33Dr. Max Steuer
Dr. Max Steuer
Associate Professor
B.A., LL.B. (Comenius University, Slovakia);
M.A. (Central European University);
LL.M. (University of Cambridge);
Ph.D. (Comenius University, Slovakia)
-
Biography
-
Publications
-
Paper presentations in conferences
-
Awards or Fellowships received
-
Areas of interest
-
Courses Taught
-
Memberships
-
Academic and professional service
Max Steuer’s research focuses on the meanings and protection of democracy, constitutional adjudication in a comparative perspective (with an emphasis on constitutional courts), freedom of expression, and constitutionalism in the European Union. His interdisciplinary scholarship appeared in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes in law, political science, sociology, and European studies.
Max’s doctoral dissertation examined the impact of the understandings of democracy by constitutional courts on their capacity to protect democratic regimes at Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia). In addition to serving as Assistant Professor at the O.P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School (2020 –), he has been appointed as Research Fellow (2019-2020) and Assistant Professor (2022 –) at Comenius University, Department of Political Science. He has contributed to several research projects including EU3D (‘EU Differentiation, Dominance and Democracy’ funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme) and PODATA (‘Politics of Personal Data: Transparency, Accountability and Legitimacy in the Digital Era’ sponsored by the Slovak Research and Development Agency). A member of several academic associations in political science and public law, such as the International Society of Public Law (ICON•S) and its Central and Eastern European Chapter, he was visiting researcher at academic institutions in Germany (WZB Berlin Social Science Center and European University Viadrina), Sweden (Örebro University), the UK (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford), and the USA (Washington State University as a Fulbright scholarship recipient).
Updated: August 2022.
Journal Articles (selection)
- The Extreme Right as a Defender of Human Rights? Parliamentary Debates on COVID-19 Emergency Legislation in Slovakia. In: Laws, 11(2), art. no. 17. ISSN 2075-471X.
- Authoritarian Populism, Conceptions of Democracy, and the Hungarian Constitutional Court: The Case of Political Participation. In: International Journal of Human Rights, online first.
- The Guardians and the Watchdogs: The Framing of Politics, Partisanship and Qualification in the 2018-2019 Slovak Constitutional Court Appointment Process. In: Právny Obzor, 102(special issue), pp. 34-54. ISSN 0032-6984.
- Militant Democracy on the Rise: The Consequences of Legal Restrictions on Extreme Speech in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. In: Review of Central and East European Law, 44(2), pp. 162-201. ISSN 1573-0352.
- Constitutional Pluralism and the Slovak Constitutional Court: The Challenge of European Union Law. In: The Lawyer Quarterly, 8(2), pp. 108-128. ISSN 1805-840X.
- The (Non)political Taboo: Why Democracies Ban Holocaust Denial. In: Sociológia – Slovak Sociological Review, 49(6), pp. 673-693. ISSN 0049 – 1225.
- Extrémy slobody prejavu a úloha právnej regulácie. (The Extremes of Freedom of Speech and the Role of Legal Regulation.) In: Časopis pro právní vědu a praxi, 25(3), pp. 475-491. ISSN 1805-2789.
- Kto a ako vyberá strážcov? Legitimita výberu sudcov Ústavného súdu Slovenskej republiky v komparatívnej perspektíve. (Who Selects the Guardians and How? The Legitimacy of the Selection of Judges of the Slovak Constitutional Court in a Comparative Perspective.) In: Právník, 155(4), pp. 338-356. ISSN 0231-6625.
- The Council of Europe and Democratic Security: Reconciling the Irreconcilable? In: Politikon, The IAPSS Journal of Political Science, 29, pp. 267-278. ISSN 2414-6633.
- Satisfying the Majority? Case Studies in Slovak Minority Policy 2006 – 2014. In: Annales Scientia Politica, 2/2015, pp. 42-51. ISSN 1339-0732.
- A Subordinate Issue? An Analysis of Parliamentary Discourse on Freedom of Speech in Slovakia. In: Czech Journal of Political Science, 1/2015, pp. 55-74. ISSN 1211-3247.
- 2015. Country Specifics of a Universal Right? Freedom of Political Speech in the Slovak Republic. In: Politikon, The IAPSS Journal of Political Science, 25, pp. 56-79. ISSN 1583-3984.
- 2014 (with D. Malová). Sloboda prejavu v Slovenskej republike: Analýza vybraných súdnych rozhodnutí. (Freedom of Speech in the Slovak Republic. Analysis of selected judicial decisions.) In: Právník, 153(4), pp. 309-325. ISSN 0231-6625.
Book Chapters (selection)
- 2022 (with M. Kovanič). Militarization of Democracy in Slovakia. In: Rak, J., Bäcker, R. (eds.): Neo-militant Democracies in Post-Communist Member States of the European Union. London: Routledge, pp. 165-180.
- 2020 (with J. Štiavnický). The Many Faces of Law-Making by Constitutional Courts with Extensive Review Powers: The Slovak Case. In: Florczak-Wątor, M. (ed.). Judicial Law-Making in European Constitutional Courts. London: Routledge, pp. 183-200.
- Newspaper Portrayal of the EU in Crises in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary: The Union’s Imagined Linearity? In: Bátora, J., Fossum, J. E. (eds.). Towards a Segmented European Political Order. The European Union’s Post-Crises Conundrum. London: Routledge, pp. 199-224.
- 2018 (with E. Láštic). The Slovak Constitutional Court: The Third Legislator? In: Pócza, K. (ed.). Constitutional Politics and the Judiciary. Decision Making in Central and Eastern Europe. London: Routledge, pp. 184-213.
- Searching for the Fair Balance? The Application of the Principle of Proportionality in Slovak Freedom of Speech Cases. In: Międzynarodowa ochrona praw człowieka – współczesne problemy na świecie. Wrocław: Prawnicza i Ekonomiczna Biblioteka Cyfrowa, pp. 181-195. ISBN 978-83-61370-59-8.
Book Reviews/Encyclopaedia Entries/Other (selection)
- 2022 (with R. Plancarte-Escobar). Case Study: Junior Journals in Politics and International Relations: Potential and Challenges. In: Learned Publishing, 35(3), pp. 385-392.
- 2022 (with R. Plancarte-Escobar). Editorial: Towards Improved Understanding of Students and Junior Scholars as Authors, Reviewers, Editors and Leaders in Scholarly Publishing. In: Learned Publishing, 35(3), 306-307.
- J. M. Kovács and B. Trencsényi (eds): Brave New Hungary. Mapping the ‘System of National Cooperation’ (Book review). In: Europe-Asia Studies, 74(1), pp. 170-171. ISSN 1465-3427.
- C. Rauchegger and A. Wallerman (eds.): The Eurosceptic Challenge: National Implementation and Interpretation of EU Law (Book review). In: Journal of Common Market Studies, 59(1), pp. 185-186. ISSN 1468-5965.
- Militant Democracy and COVID-19: Protecting the Regime, Protecting Rights? In: Hong Kong Journal of Law and Public Affairs, 2, pp. 131-145.
- A. Malkopoulou and A. Kirshner (eds.): Militant Democracy and Its Critics—Populism, Parties, Extremism (Book review). In: Democratization, 28(4), pp. 861-863. ISSN 1743-890X.
- The Hungarian Constitutional Court (with K. Kelemen); The Slovak Constitutional Court. In: Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law. Oxford: OUP.
- Democratic Security; Militant Democracy. In: Romaniuk, S. – Thapa, M. – Márton, P. (eds.). The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies. Cham: Springer.
- 2016 (with P. Molnár). Governments Speak by Their Silence, Too. An Interview with Péter Molnár. Part I & Part II. In: Café Babel. ISSN 2110-5669.
- The International Helping Hand? The Impact of the Council of Europe on Policies towards ‘Hate Speech’ in Slovakia. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Working Paper.
- The Influence of the ECtHR on Slovak Courts: The Case of Freedom of Expression. In: Bratislava Legal Forum 2015. Comenius University: Faculty of Law, pp. 813-824. ISBN 978-80-7160-411-2.
- Human Rights and Human Well-Being Around the Globe. In: Global Politics. ISSN 1213–7685.
- A Dual Legitimacy for a Democratic European Community? Jürgen Habermas and Constituent Power in the European Union. In: International Centre for Democratic Transition Paper Series.
- Academic blog contributions at IACL-AIDC Blog (2018, 2020 [1], [2], 2022) Verfassungsblog, Diritti Comparati, I-CONnect, Crossroads Europe.
Active participant (presenter/chair/discussant) at more than 40 international conferences & workshops in more than 15 countries, including:
- Annual Conference of the International Society of Public Law, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland & online, July 4 – 6, 2022. Paper presenter (in invited panels): Illiberal features of the Slovak Constitution: An explorative study (with D. Malová); Slovakia‘s States of Emergency and the COVID-19 Pan(dem)ic.
- Weyr’s Days of Legal Theory on Challenges of Liberal Democracy. Masaryk University, Brno, June 9 – 10, 2022. Invited discussant for the roundtable on Freedom of Speech.
- GLOBSEC Bratislava Forum 2022, Slovakia. June 2 – 4, 2022. Invited co-panellist for the side event: The EU’s Future Role on the Global Stage: Are We Ready for It?
- Policy Insight Debate (Citizens as Shareholders of the European Project: What’s Next?). Friends of Europe, 31 May 2022.
- International workshop: COVID-19 and States of Emergency in the V4 countries. Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia. May 13, 2022. Invited presenter: Parliamentary debates on the constitutional regulation of emergency situations: The case of Slovakia.
- State of the Union 2022 Conference, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, May 5 – 6, 2022. Invited panellist for the session ‘Deliberate! Taking Stock of the Conference of the Future of Europe’.
- European Constitutionalism and the Virus of Distrust. Prague, Czechia, April 27 – 28, 2022. Presenter: Streaming versus Holism at the European Citizens’ Panel on EU Values: Towards Participatory Constitutionalism?
- International symposium of the IPSA Research Committee 26 on Human Rights on ‘How has COVID-19 changed the world?’, held online. December 9 – 10, 2021. Invited Paper Presenter: Life or Survival. What Comes First? Fundamental Rights and Slovak Parliamentary Debates on Emergency Legislation.
- 26th IPSA World Congress, held online. July 10 – 15, 2021. Paper Presenter: Political Participation at the Hungarian Constitutional Court: Falling Prey to Illiberalism? Discussant: The Judicialization of Contentious Policy Issues: Abortion, LGBTQ, Euthanasia, and the Environment. Participant: IPSAMOOC: New Digital Scenarios for Global PS Education. Convener: The Role of Students and Junior Scholars in Academic Publishing: Of Students, By Students, For Students (Or Beyond)? IAPSS Publications – Meet the Editorial Teams.
- Annual Conference of the International Society of Public Law, held online. July 6 – 9, 2021. Paper Presenter: Increasing Democratic Resilience Through Law? Apex Courts and the ‘Militancy Conundrum’.
- Podcast (Expert on the Rule of Law: Poland Questions EU Values but Prefers to Remain a Member: The EU Was Not Built for This), Euractiv Slovakia, May 31, 2021.
- The ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, held online. May 25 – 28, 2021. Paper Presenter: Courts and the Militancy Conundrum: Judicial Responses to Extreme Political Movements in Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia.
- Book Panel (Judicial Law-Making in European Constitutional Courts), online, hosted by Jagiellonian University, Poland, January 28, 2021.
- 14th ECPR General Conference, held online. August 24 – 28, 2020. Panel Chair: Democracy in Pandemics. Paper Discussant: Judicial Preferences and Role Conceptions. Paper Presenter: Judicial Meanings of Democracy: Political Participation and Deliberation at the Hungarian and Slovak Constitutional Courts; Slovak Courts and Cultural Expertise in ‘Hate Speech’ Cases: Between Scylla and Charybdis?.
- Global Constitutionalism Junior Scholars Workshop on ‘New Approaches to Global Constitutionalism’. Cambridge University Press, held online. July 16 – 17, 2020. Paper Presenter: The Obligation of Constitutional Courts in the European Union: Sustainable Constitutional Pluralism.
- International Conference on ‘Free Speech in the 21st Century’. IACL ‘Freedom of Speech’ Research Group, held online. July 3 – 4, 2020. Paper Presenter: Social Scientific Expertise in Slovak Courts: The Struggle Against ‘Hate Speech’ by the Far Right.
- Czech the Slovaks Conference, University of Cambridge, March 7, 2020. Speaker (‘Extreme political parties at the Czech and Slovak courts: The wax and wane of resilient democracy’).
- Ninth Annual Doctoral Scholarship Conference. Yale Law School, New Haven, USA. November 8 – 9, 2019. Discussant & Paper Presenter: Constitutional Courts and the Illiberal Temptation: The Implications of the Hungarian Transformation of Constitutional Review [received Wolfson College travel grant].
- 13th ECPR General Conference. University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland, September 4 – 7, 2019. Panel Chair: Democratic Backsliding in the EU: Causes and Impact. Paper Discussant: Overcoming Injustice. Paper Presenter: Resisting the Majoritarian Temptation: The Understandings of Separation of Powers and Democracy by the Constitutional Courts in Slovakia and Hungary.
- Canadian Political Science Association Annual Conference. Vancouver, Canada, June 4—6, 2019. Panel Chair: Politics in Central Europe. Paper Presenter: The Guardians of What? Assessing the Slovak and Hungarian Constitutional Courts’ Understandings of Democracy; Newspaper Portrayal of the European Union in Crises in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary: The Union’s Imagined Linearity [received CPSA travel grant].
- Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. Washington D.C., USA, May 30—June 2, 2019. Paper presenter: Guarding Democracy Depends on Its Understanding: Constitutional Courts in Hungary and Slovakia and (Anti-)democratic Political Change.
- Stanford Program in Law and Society’s 6th Conference for Junior Researchers. Stanford University, USA, May 10—11, 2019. Paper presenter: Resisting the Majoritarian Temptation: The Understandings of Democracy by the Constitutional Courts in Hungary and Slovakia.
- 16th European Union Studies Association Biennial Conference. Denver, USA, May 9, 2019. Paper presenter: Supranational Democracy Through Judicial Review? Studying the Relationship Between Democracy and Integration in EU Member States’ Constitutional Courts.
- 77th MPSA Annual Conference. Chicago, USA, April 4—7, 2019. Paper co-discussant: Courts and Constitution. Paper presenter: Constitutional Courts as Crisis-Preventing Actors: The Case of Slovakia (with S. Kneip); Guarding Democracy Requires Understanding It: The Hungarian Constitutional Court and the Transformation of Democracy.
- 60th ISA Annual Convention. Toronto, Canada, March 27 – 30, 2019. Paper discussant: Institutions and Agency in International Politics: Overcoming Disciplinary Boundaries. Panel Chair: The Interplay between States and Non-State Actors in Shaping Conflict, Security and Integration. Paper presenter: International Relations/International Law: Meetings and Disagreement. Title of paper: Building a Supranational Community Through Constitutional Courts? The Relationship Between Democracy and Integration in Judicial Decision-Making.
- Workshop on ‘Democratic Challenges in Slovakia’. Bratislava, Slovakia, October 26, 2018. Invited for the expert session on Media Freedom.
- Interview (The Application of Article 7 TEU against Poland and Hungary), Morning News (15:05-22:25), RTVS, September 13, 2018.
- 25th IPSA World Congress on ‘Borders and Margins’. Brisbane, Australia, July 22 – 25, 2018. Panel Chair: Political Narratives and Discourses. Paper Discussant: Europe’s Multiple Borders: Critical Investigations. Presented papers: Constitutional Courts as Guardians of Democracy? Conceptualization and Empirical Application on the Case of Slovakia; The Constitutional Court as a Third Legislator? The Case of Slovakia (with E. Láštic).
- Interview with Professor Timothy Garton Ash on ‘Free Speech Under Attack? Global and European Challenges.’ Program of the International Association for Political Science Students, June 21, 2018.
- Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies Discussion Group. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, June 7, 2018. Title of paper: Constitutional Courts: Guardians of Democracy, Guarantors of Justice? Conceptualization and Empirical Application.
- ICON-S CEE Chapter Conference on ‘The Power of Public Law in the 21st Century’. Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, April 20, 2018. Title of paper: What Does Democracy Envisioned by Constitutional Courts Look Like? The Case of Slovakia.
- Co-convener of the international symposium on ‘Education for a Europe of Rights’, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, December 1 – 2, 2017.
- 11th ECPR General Conference. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, September 6 – 9, 2017. Panel Chair: The Meaning of Political Institutions and Institutionalisms. Paper Discussant: The Meaning of Politics in International Organizations. Presented papers: When a Guardian Fails: Identifying the Influences of Constitutional Courts on Democracy; The Third Legislator? The Relationship between the Slovak Constitutional Court and the Slovak Parliament (with E. Láštic).
- Annual Conference of the International Society of Public Law on ‘Courts, Power, Public Law’. University of Copenhagen, Denmark, July 5 – 7, 2017 Titles of papers: The Third Legislator? The Relationship between the Slovak Constitutional Court and the Slovak Parliament (with E. Láštic); Determinants of the Guardians’ Success or Failure: Identifying Influences of Constitutional Courts on Democracy.
Significant awards/fellowships:
- 2021: Miroslav Kusý prize for the contribution to the Alumni network and organization of the Slovak Human Rights Olympics.
- 2019: Honorable mention of the Interdisciplinary Studies Section of the International Studies Association.
- 2019: Fulbright Scholarship for Graduate Studies for a six-month research stay at the Washington State University (consultant: Prof. Cornell Clayton).
- 2018: Scholarship from the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic for a five-month research stay at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)/Berlin Social Science Center (consultant: Dr. Sascha Kneip).
- 2018: Scholarship from the Tatra Bank Foundation for a four-month research stay on ‘Constitutional Courts—The Guardians of Democracy?’ at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies.
- 2017—2018: Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship for a five-month research stay at the Örebro University, School of Law, Psychology and Social Work (consultant: Prof. Katalin Kelemen).
- 2017: Scholarship for one-month acquaintance stay at the European University Viadrina, Faculty of Law (summer 2017).
- 2017: (together with A. Berkes, D. Grebles, N. Kovalcikova and A. Nyircsak) Awarded a Jackpot Project Grant from the Allianz Cultural Foundation for a one-year project on ‘Education for a Europe of Rights’ (final report available online, also interview [pp. 22-23]).
- 2015: Outstanding MA Thesis Award, Central European University, IRES Department (Awarded for one of the two best theses in class). Thesis title: The Council of Europe as Gentle Power? The Case of ‘Hate Speech’ in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
- 2015: Best Paper Award of the European Public Policy Conference 2015, Warsaw, Poland. Title of paper: Awakening from EU Fatigue?
- 2014: International Visegrad Fund, Intra-Visegrad Scholarship for Academic Year 2014/2015.
- 2014: Central European University in Budapest, Partial Fellowship for Academic Year 2014/2015.
democracy research (theory and empirics with emphasis on militant democracy); constitutional adjudication in Central Europe; freedom of expression, constitutionalism in the European Union (European rule of law, constitutional pluralism); cultural expertise; jurisprudence (particularly legal principles and legal interpretation); qualitative methods (parliamentary discourse analysis, semi-structured interviewing)
Assistant Professor, O.P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School, India (2020 – present):
- International Relations (core, co-teaching)
- Jurisprudence I [General Jurisprudence] (core)
- Comparative Constitutional Adjudication (elective)
- European Constitutionalism (elective)
- Theories of Democracy: An Introduction (elective)
Assistant Professor, Comenius University in Bratislava, Department of Political Science, Slovakia (2022 – present)
- Czech Republic and Slovakia in the 20th Century (core)
- Institutions of the European Union (core)
- The International Society of Public Law (2016 – present; member of the Founding Advisory Board of the Central and Eastern European Chapter, 2018-2022).
- Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Slovakia (2012 – present).
- Forum Alpbach Network (2020 – present).
- Allianz Alumni Network (2015 – present).
- Expert witness in the case Mazurek v. Slovakia (Specialized Criminal Court of Slovakia). 2017-2018.
- Reviewer, Academia Letters (2 reviews), Balkan Social Science Review (1 review), Constitutional Political Economy (1 review + 1 assessment of a revised manuscript), Genealogy (1 review), Jindal Global Law Review (1 review), Polish National Science Centre (1 project review), Polish Political Science Yearbook (1 review + 1 assessment of a revised manuscript), Ratio Publica (1 review), Slovak Sociological Review (2 reviews + 1 assessment of a revised manuscript), Social Sciences (2 reviews)
- Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science, Editor-in-Chief, 2018-2021 (Head of the IAPSS Academic Department and publisher representative, 2016-2018).