Announcement: Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism (GCDC) Public Law Seminar Series (PLSS): Illiberal Christian democracy as a constitutional program

Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism (GCDC) Public Law Seminar Series (PLSS): Illiberal Christian democracy as a constitutional program

Hybrid seminar – Thursday, 12 Feb 2026, 13:00 – 14:30 (UK time)

Speaker: Prof Renata Uitz (University of London)

Respondents: Prof Colm O’Cinneide (UCL Laws), Prof Erin Delaney (UCL Laws)

Chair: Prof Ronan McCrea (UCL Laws)

This event is organised by the UCL Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism.

About the seminar

In June 2018, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán found a new label to describe his political vision for a future, better Europe: illiberal Christian democracy. The speech was meant as a provocation directed at German Christian Democrats ahead of the 2019 European Parliamentary elections.

Over the years the label became an umbrella term associated with a diverse array of political experiments, some tested in international circles, others scripted into national constitutions or ordinary legislation. The rise of national conservativism has provided an excellent laboratory for testing ideas and developing them into political measures. The newly emerging (academic) theory of ‘common good constitutionalism’ originating in the US in conservative Catholic intellectual circles with strong connections in East Central Europe (ECE), sets out the intellectual underpinnings of a similar political program in constitutional terms.

The paper first traces the rapid evolution of illiberal Christian democracy as a transnational political project (Part I). It then maps the evolution of its political practices (Part II) and constitutional program (Part III). (Part IV) relates the evolution of the script of illiberal Christian democracy to the emergence of common good constitutionalism. The paper captures the emergence of constitutional ideas and practices that seek to liberate the ruler acting in the name of the common good from temporal (constitutional and political) constraints. It confirms the portability of illiberal Christian democracy’s emerging constitutional script and confirms the significance of the ECE laboratory in the global circulation of illiberal constitutional ideas and practices.

This seminar is part of the Public Law Seminar Series.