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Ph.D., Comenius University in Bratislava

LL.M., University of Cambridge

M.A., Central European University

B.A., Comenius University in Bratislava (Faculty of Arts)

B.A., Comenius University in Bratislava (Faculty of Law)

Prof. (Dr.) Max Steuer

Associate Professor

Email msteuer@jgu.edu.in
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ORCID ID 0000-0001-7638-5865
Key Expertise 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); knowledge generation; studies of disciplinarity and beyond-disciplinarity.

Ph.D., Comenius University in Bratislava

LL.M., University of Cambridge

M.A., Central European University

B.A., Comenius University in Bratislava (Faculty of Arts)

B.A., Comenius University in Bratislava (Faculty of Law)

Biography

Max Steuer’s research focuses on the science of democracy beyond disciplines, constitutional adjudication in a comparative perspective (with an emphasis on constitutional courts), freedom of expression, constitutionalism in the European Union and knowledge generation in the social sciences. His scholarship appeared in European Constitutional Law Review, European Journal of Futures Research, European Journal of Risk Regulation, International Journal of Constitutional Law, International Journal of Human Rights, Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis, Political Quarterly, Politics and Governance, Social Science & Medicine, Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law and elsewhere.

In addition to serving as Associate Professor at the O.P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School (2023–, Assistant Professor 2020–2023), Max is Principal Investigator at Comenius University in Bratislava, Department of Political Science, for the project Political Concepts in Constitutional Adjudication (Slovak Research and Development Agency) as well as Management Committee Member of the Cultural Expertise Junior Network (COST Action). A member of the Young Network TransEurope coordinated by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, he has contributed to several projects within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programs. As a member of several academic associations (including the Central and Eastern European Chapter of the International Society of Public Law (ICON•S) and the Research Committee on Sociology of Law), Max was visiting researcher at academic institutions such as Central European University (Austria), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), University of Münster (Germany), WZB Berlin Social Science Center (Germany), CEU Democracy Institute (Hungary), Örebro University (Sweden), University of Oxford (UK), University of Liverpool (UK), Washington State University (USA).

Updated: August 2026

Core Courses 

  • Jurisprudence
  • International Relations

Elective Courses 

  • Comparative Constitutional Adjudication
  • European Constitutionalism
  • Theories of Democracy: An Introduction
  • 2025–2026: Schumann Fellowship
  • 2025: European Journal of Risk Regulation (Cambridge University Press) Annual Reviewer Award for 2024
  • 2024–2026: PI, Harvesting Judicial Reservoirs of Resilience to Autocratization for Rebuilding Democracy in the Visegrad Four (Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia as part of Next Generation EU)
  • 2024–2025: re:constitution Fellowship
  • 2024: Aktion Austria – Slovakia Postdoctoral Scholarship
  • 2022: Jan Hus Educational Foundation Scholarship
  • 2019: Fulbright Scholarship for Graduate Studies
  • 2017–2018: Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship
  • University of Münster, Faculty of Law, 07/2025–06/2026 (Schumann Fellowship)
  • Central European University, Democracy Institute, 01–03/2025 (re:constitution Fellowship) | Department of Legal Studies, 02–07/2024 (Aktion Austria – Slovakia Postdoctoral Scholarship)
  • Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, 01/2024 (Residence grant for visiting scholars using the IISL library)
  • University of Liverpool, School of Law and Social Justice, 01–02/2023 (International Visiting Fellowship Programme, funding by the Jan Hus Educational Foundation Scholarship)
  • Washington State University, School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 01–06/2019 (Fulbright graduate scholarship)
  • WZB Berlin Social Science Center, 07–11/2018 (National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic)
  • University of Oxford, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, 03–06/2018 (Tatra Bank Foundation Scholarship)
     
  • Peer reviewer | Learned Publishing (9 reviews)
  • Peer reviewer | European Journal of Risk Regulation (2 reviews)
  • Peer reviewer | Jindal Global Law Review (2 reviews)
  • Peer reviewer | Constitutional Political Economy (1 review)
  • Peer reviewer | European Constitutional Law Review (1 review)
  • Peer reviewer | Filozofia—Journal of Philosophy (1 review)
  • Peer reviewer | Global Constitutionalism (1 review)
  • Peer reviewer | Intersections (1 review)
  • Peer reviewer | Journal of European Public Policy (1 review)
  • Peer reviewer | Sociology Lens (1 review)
  • Peer reviewer | The Round Table (1 review)
  • BA/MA thesis supervisor, defense committee member and second reader | Comenius University in Bratislava, Department of Political Science (2022–2025)
  • Slovak Studies Association (2025–present)
  • The RUTA Association for Central, South-Eastern, Eastern European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asian Studies in Global Conversation (2025–present)
  • International Sociological Association Research Committees on Sociology of Law and Sociology of Organizations (2025–present)
  • DemocracyNet – Studying and Discussing Democracy (2023–present)
  • I-CON Society (2017–2018, 2020–present), founding member of the Central and East European Chapter; member of the Advisory Board for the CEE Chapter (2018–present)
  • European Forum Alpbach Alumni (since 2020, lifelong)
  • International Political Science Association (2017–2018, 2020–2021, 2022–2025)
  • Member of the Expert Network on “The Free Mandate of Members of the European Parliament” coordinated by the Centre for European Policy Studies, 2026
  • Towards Democratic Judiciaries; convener of public event in the Talking Courts Project, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2023
  • Expert witness in the case Mazurek v. Slovakia (Specialized Criminal Court of Slovakia), 2017–2018
  • Guest Editor | ICL Journal (2026–2027)
  • Editorial Board | Constitutions and Constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe (CEU Press [book series], 2025–present)
  • Guest Co-Editor | Global Jurist (2024–2025)
  • Reviews Editor and Guest Co-Editor | Jindal Global Law Review (2022–2023)
  • Guest Co-Editor | Learned Publishing (2021–2022)
  • Editor-in-Chief | Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science (2018–2021)
     

Forthcoming. Legality and populism: The pendulum between perpetuating and reducing domination. In: Harel, A., Müller-Mall, S., Möller, K., Levi Y., Bareli, M. and Mészáros, G. (eds.). The Cambridge Handbook of Legal Populism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Forthcoming. Politics and Cultural Expertise: A Framework for Analysis Beyond Disciplines. In: Kobzeva, M. and Bertelsen, R. G. (eds.). Handbook of Interdisciplinary Political Science. Cham: Springer.

(with N. A. Siddiqui). Rethinking Security: Towards Third World Approaches to European Union Law. In: Journal of Contemporary European Studies, online first. ISSN 1478-2790.

From disciplines to concepts: Beyond (inter)disciplinarity in legal knowledge generation. In: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 13. ISSN 2662-9992.

(with D. Malová). The Erosion of Constitutionalism via Constitutional Entrepreneurship: Lessons from Slovakia. In: The Political Quarterly, 97(2), pp. 314-322. ISSN 0032-3179.

Rule of Law Minimalism and the Fear of ‘Politics’: The Slovak Constitutional Court Amidst the Illiberal Surge. In: International Journal for the Semiotics of Law – Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 39(1), pp. 103-126. ISSN 1572-8722.

The Hungarian Munchausen Parliament and the Future of the European Union: Debating the Contours of an Anti-Constitutional Project. In: Góra, M., Thevenin, E. and Zielińska, K. (eds.). Political Actors’ Narratives on the Reforms of the European Union: Future Visions of Europe? London: Routledge, pp. 154-174. ISBN 9781032963181.

(with G. Halmai and Á. Kovács). The Resilience of Constitutional Courts and Their Resistance to Autocratization: Beyond Binaries, Where Time Matters. In: Global Jurist, 25(2), pp. 373-396. ISSN 1934-2640.

(Dis)empowerment and Constitutional Court Resilience: A Conceptual Framework and Explorative Evidence from the Slovak Constitutional Court. In: Global Jurist, 25(2), pp. 213-235. ISSN 1934-2640.

(with J. Organ). Reductionism and Holism in European Union ‘Value Talk’: The Case of the Conference on the Future of Europe. In: ICON (International Journal of Constitutional Law), 23(2), pp. 435-462. ISSN 1474-2659.

Hijacking “Democracy”: Proposals for the Future of the European Union in Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia (2015–2022). In: Politics and Governance, 13, no. 9775, pp. 1–23. ISSN 2183-2463.

(with M. Góra, V. Ostatník and N. Timková-Rungis). Sovereignty to the Leader: Visegrad Four Eurosceptic Narratives on the Future of the European Union. In: Croatian Political Science Review, 62(2), pp. 76-106. ISSN 1846-8721.

(with T. Gábriš). The Consequences of COVID-19 Emergency Risk Mismanagement: The Rise of Anti-Evidence Decision Making in Slovakia. In: European Journal of Risk Regulation, 16(2), pp. 546-559. ISSN 2190-8249.

(with S. Kneip and C. W. Clayton). Courting Constitutional Crises: Crisis Mitigation by Constitutional Courts as Democratic Institutions. In: European Journal of Futures Research, 13, no. 7. ISSN 2195-2248.

The “Will of the People” as Means for Pressuring the Rule of Law? The Case of the Slovak Constitutional Court. In: Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft (German Journal of Comparative Politics), 19(2), pp. 247-271. ISSN 1865-2654.

Towards understanding constitutional court resilience vis-à-vis autocratization: An institutionalist approach. In: Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 15(2), pp. 395-426. ISSN 2079-5971.

(with A.L. Vieira Costa and A.M. Figueroa). Massive open online learning for democracy in Political Science: Learners’ reactions to connectivist elements. In: Social Sciences and Humanities Open, 10, no. 101113.

Cultural Expertise, Hate Speech, and the Far Right: The Slovak Mazurek Case. In: Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis, 56(2), pp. 215-235.

States of Emergency, Simultaneous Overreach and Underreach, and the COVID-19 Pan(dem)ic. In: European Journal of Risk Regulation, 15(1), pp. 87-101.

Judicial self-perceptions and the separation of powers in varied political regime contexts: The constitutional courts in Hungary and Slovakia. In: European Politics and Society, 25(3), pp. 537-555.

(with M. Florczak-Wątor, F. Gárdos-Orosz and J. Malíř). States of Emergency and Human Rights Protection: The Theory and Practice of the Visegrad Countries. Routledge.

(with E. Láštic). The Slovak Constitutional Court: The Promise of Dworkinian Adjudication? In: Pócza, K. (ed.). Constitutional Review in Central and Eastern Europe: Judicial-Legislative Relations in Comparative Perspective. Routledge, pp. 244-273.

(with M. Kovanič). Fighting against COVID-19: With or without politics? In: Social Science & Medicine, 337, no. 116297.

Democracy, Procedural and Social Rights, and Constitutional Courts in Hungary and Slovakia. In: Constitutional Review, 9(1), pp. 28-76.

(with K. Šipulová). From Minimalism to the Substantive Core and Back: The Slovak Constitutional Court and (the Lack of) Constitutional Identity. In: Kovács, K. (ed.). The Jurisprudence of Particularism: National Identity Claims in Central Europe. Hart, pp. 81-104.

Cultural Expertise and Extreme Speech. In: Holden, L. (ed.). Cultural Expertise, Law, and Rights: A Comprehensive Guide. Routledge, pp. 158-165.

Rule of Law – The Concept. In: Cremades, J. – Hermida, C. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Constitutionalism. Springer.

D. Jancic (ed): The Changing Role of Citizens in EU Democratic Governance (Book review). In: European Law Review, 48(4), pp. 496-498.

(2019 as online first). Democratic Security; Militant Democracy. In: Romaniuk, S. – Thapa, M. – Márton, P. (eds.). The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies. Springer, pp. 270-276, 954-959.

The Role of Judicial Craft in Improving Democracy's Resilience: The Case of Party Bans in Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia. In: European Constitutional Law Review, 18(3), pp. 440-465.

Authoritarian Populism, Conceptions of Democracy, and the Hungarian Constitutional Court: The Case of Political Participation. In: International Journal of Human Rights, 26(7), pp. 1207-1229. (Also in Grover, S. (ed.). 2023. Judicial Activism in an Age of Populism. Routledge, Chapter 4.)

(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. Routledge, pp. 165-180.

To End Sleepwalking: The Constitutional Potential of the Conference on the Future of Europe. In: Horák, F., Řepa, K. (eds.). European Constitutionalism and the Virus of Distrust. Edited Volume from the International Conference held in Prague, Czech Republic on April 27-28, Leges, pp. 57-77.

(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), pp. 306-307.

(with R. Plancarte-Escobar). Case Study: Junior Journals in Politics and International Relations. In: Learned Publishing, 35(3), pp. 385-392.

R. Bellamy, S. Kröger and M. Lorimer: Flexible Europe: Differentiated Integration, Fairness, and Democracy (Book review). In: Journal of Common Market Studies, 60(5), pp. 1531-1532.

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.

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.

(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. Routledge, pp. 183-200.

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.

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.

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. Routledge, pp. 199-224

[updated in 2024]. The Hungarian Constitutional Court (with K. Kelemen); The Slovak Constitutional Court. In: Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law. Oxford University Press.

Constitutional Pluralism and the Slovak Constitutional Court: The Challenge of European Union Law. In: The Lawyer Quarterly, 8(2), pp. 108-128.

(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.

The (Non)political Taboo: Why Democracies Ban Holocaust Denial. In: Slovak Sociological Review, 49(6), pp. 673-693.

Governments Speak by Their Silence, Too. An Interview with Péter Molnár. Part I & Part II. In: Café Babel.

The International Helping Hand? The Impact of the Council of Europe on Policies towards ‘Hate Speech’ in Slovakia. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Budapest) Working Paper.

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.

A Dual Legitimacy for a Democratic European Community? Jürgen Habermas and Constituent Power in the European Union. In: International Centre for Democratic Transition (Budapest) Paper Series.

Human Rights and Human Well-Being Around the Globe. In: Global Politics [ISSN 1213–7685].
Email msteuer@jgu.edu.in
ORCID ID 0000-0001-7638-5865
Key Expertise 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); knowledge generation; studies of disciplinarity and beyond-disciplinarity.
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