Conference Program

International Conference on
Constitutional Pluralism

Venue: West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Dr. Ambedkar Bhavan 12, LB Block, Sector III, Salt Lake City, Kolkata - 700098
Dates: 11-12 November 2010

Day I Thursday, 11 November 2010

10:00-10:15 – Welcome address by Prof.(Dr.) M.P.Singh, Vice Chancellor, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata

10:15-10:50 – Keynote address by Dr. Konrad Lachmayer - Legal & Constitutional Pluralism

10:50-11:00 – Tea 

10:30-12:55 – SESSION I: Constitutional Pluralism and Legal Pluralism

Chair: Prof.(Dr.) Thio Li-ann

11:00-11:20 - Sudhir Krishnaswamy- ‘Legal Pluralism and Constitutional Pluralism: A Necessary Connection?’

11:20-11:50 - Pritam Baruah & Nicolas Martin Rouleau – ‘The Role of Legal and Constitutional Pluralism as procedures to resolve value conflicts’

11:50-12:10 - Georg Lienbacher - ‘Constitutional Pluralism - A federalist approach‘

12:10-12:55 - Q&A

12:55-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:45 - Session II Constitutional Pluralism - Country Specific Approaches

Chair– Prof.(Dr.) M.P.Singh

14:00-14:20 - Qianfan Zhang – ‘A Constitution without Constitutionalism? The Paths of Constitutional Developments in China’

14:20-14:40 - Tonami Koji – ‘The development of the Constitutionalism in Japan after World War II’

14:40-15:00 - Guobin Zhu – ‘Unity in Diversity: The Experiences of Chinese State viewed from Comparative Perspective’

15:00-15:45 - Q&A

15:45-16:00 Tea/Coffee Break

16:00–17:45 Session III Construction of Constitutional Identities, Self Determination, and Autonomy

Chair– Prof.(Dr.) Georg Lienbacher 

16:00-16:20 - Amita Dhanda – ‘Constitutional Pluralism to reconstruct the constitutional identity of persons with disabilities’

16:20-16:40 - Harihar Bhattacharya – ‘Constitutional Pluralism and Conceptual Hybridism: Citizenship in India’

16:40-17:00 - Bipin Adhikari – ‘Right to Self Determination: Some issues under the draft Constitution of Nepal’

17:00-17:45- Q&A

18:00 onwards Dinner for all the participants

Day II 12 November 2010, FRIDAY

10:00- 12:00 Session I - Constitution and Minority Protection

Chair – Prof.(Dr.) Amita Dhanda
10:00-10:20 - Kamala Shankaran – ‘Dealing with Difference: South Asian Experiments in Power Sharing’

10:20-10:40 - Christoph Bezemek – ‘Constitution’s Minority-Protective Function - Theory and Reality’

10:40-11:00 - Christina Binder – ‘Autonomy as means to accommodate cultural diversity? The case of indigenous peoples’ d.

11:00-11:20 - Joachim Stern – ‘Legal Pluralism - A Set to Choose From or a Multitude of Rules to Follow? The Legal Situation of Migrants in European Countries’

11:20- 12:00 - Q&A

12:00-12:10 Tea / Coffee Break

12:10-14:15 Session II - Pluralism and Multi-level Constitutionalism

Chair– Prof. (Dr.) Qianfan Zhang

12:10 - 12:30 - Thomas Kroll – ‘Co-operative Legal Protection in Multi-level Systems of Law’

12:30 - 12:50 - Stephen Schuman – ‘European Constitutionalism: Struggling for Autonomy in International Law’

12:50 - 13:10 - Claudia Fuchs – ‘On the Convergence in the Interpretation of Human Rights in the European Human Rights Regime’

13:10 - 13:30 - Bedanna Bapuly – ‘Fundamental Rights Adjudication in the EU’

13:30 - 14:15 - Q&A

14:15 – 15:00 Lunch

Session III - Constitutional Orders and Judicial Review

Chair – Prof.(Dr.) Sudhir Krishnaswamy

15:00-15:20 – M.P.Singh – ‘ Constitutionalism and legal pluralism: Institutional response through judical review’

15:20-15:40 - Surya Dhungel – ‘Judicial Review Under Transitional Constitutionalism In Nepal’

15:40-16:00 - Ridwanul Hoque – ‘Towards an active judicial review: Horizontality of fundamental rights in Bangladesh’

16:00-16:20 - Ishwara Bhat – ‘Constitutions Within A Constitution As A Response To Multicultural Reality: A Comparative Reflection On The Indian and Japanese Experience’

16:20 -17:00 – Q&A

17:00-18:00 Vote of Thanks and Presentation of Mementos by Dr.Arup Poddar, Registrar, WBNUJS.

18:00 onwards Dinner for all the participants

Project Coordinators & Contact:

Prof. Dr. M.P. Sing, Vice Chancellor
National University of Juridical Sciences

Dr. Surya Deva, Assistant Professor
School of Law, City University of Hong Kong
suryad@cityu.edu.hk

Dr. Konrad Lachmayer,
Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, University of Vienna
konrad.lachmayer@univie.ac.at