2015

From the 9^th to the 11^th  of march 2015 the ReConFort team was invited by the University of Macerata (Università degli Studi di Macerata) in Italy which has specialised in humanities since its beginnigs in the 13^th century . The spring conference was organized by the Italian ReConFort-post doc Dr. Giuseppe Mecca.

The topic of the meeting was the term of “national sovereignty” in the constitutional formation processes of the targeted countries. The team members from Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain presented their research results in elaborated papers and discussed them with the group and the principal investigator Prof. Dr. Ulrike Müßig.

On Monday morning the team was welcomed by the Rector of the University Prof. Dr. Luigi Lacchè, professor of Legal History at the Department of Law of the University of Macerata and member of the International Advisory Board of the ReConFort project. In his short address he stressed the importance of the research field of comparative constitutional history and the interests of the University of Macerata in being part of European research cooperations. At Monday afternoon the ReConFort team was invited to a guided tour around the city of Macerata including visits of the Basilica Santa Maria della Misericordia, the open air opera Sferisterio and the museum of modern art Palazzo Ricci.

On Tuesday march 10, 2015 the conference continued and culminated into guided tours around the historic libraries of the city (Studi Storici Library and Mozzi-Borgetti Library), offering the ReConFort team valuable research opportunities. In the late afternoon the PI Prof. Dr. Ulrike Müßig was welcomed at the grand Aula Magna of the University by the Rector of the University Prof. Dr. Luigi Lacchè, the dean of the faculty of law Prof. Dr. Ermanno Calzolaio and the legal historian Prof. Dr. Massimo Meccarelli. Prof. Müßig presented a well observed lecture on the comparative aspects of the national sovereignty in 18^th and 19^th century Europe (Aspetti comparativi della sovranità nazionale nell’Europa nel XVIII e XIX secolo) to a vast audience composed out of members of the faculty, post-docs and students. The day ended with a joint dinner of the members of the faculty of Law and the ReConFort team.

On the last day of the meeting in Macerata the group discussed the overall results of the meeting, future research goals and plans for publications, before the PI set off for Rome on the Wednesday evening to continue research in the senate library on invitation of the President Dr. Giuseppe Filippetta. The team will meet again for the next autumn conference in Passau from 4^th to 6^th november 2015.

From the 4th to the 6th of November, the ReconFort-team met for its regular conference in Passau. 

The meeting focused on the final discussion of the articles for the volume "ReConFort I: National Sovereignty". In addition the outline of the future research and the next meeting in Brussel were planned. The research team discussed the outline of the next research focus "presedence of constitution" and the crucial points of the differentiation between constituent body and legislative body, the written crystallization of the constitution, the supremacy of the consitution and the constitutional amendments.

For the first time, the new British team member Shavana Musa was taking part in the meeting and introduced herself to the team. She will support the overall research and will investigate the impact of British constitutional history on the targeted constitutional movements. Her research will provide insight into the British discourse surrounding the Spanish Cortes; the Polish Partitions; the Italian Subalpine Parliament and the Belgian National Congress. 

Regarding the planned ReConFort open-access web database, Armin Gerl presented the current state of development and introduced the researchers to the details of the implementation process of the various documents.

The principal investigator Prof. Müßig gave a presentation on the Norwegian Eidsvoll Constitution as a masterpiece of Evolutionary Constitutional Formation and its relevance for the targeted ReConFort countries.

The Team will meet again in March 2016 in Brussels.