Click on the image to download a larger size.
CONFERENCE REPORT
The 2023 ECBA Spring Conference opened with the usual Friday reception, this time at the Warsaw Bar Association of Advocates historical venue, where Vincent Asselineau, Chair of the ECBA, welcomed the delegates. The guests also received a warm welcome from Mikolaj Pietrzak, Dean of the Warsaw Bar Council and co-recipient of the 2021 Scott Crosby human rights award, together with the Polish Judge Igor Tuleya, who was a guest at the reception too.
After a joyful evening of reunion, the ECBA members, old and new, guests and speakers, attended the auditorium of the Fine Arts Academy of Warsaw on Saturday. Mikolaj Pietrzak, Dean of the Warsaw Bar Council and ECBA member, set the tone of the conference by reminding us the current populist climate in Europe, the backsliding of human rights and the crisis of the rule of law.
Vincent Asselineau, Chair of the ECBA, recalled the essential work of the ECBA in this context as a direct and key interlocutor of the EU Commission, EU Parliament, Council of Europe and ICC.
He then left the floor to Vânia Costa Ramos who, despite her ankle injury, in few well-chosen words reminded us of our role in upholding the rule of law before introducing the two keynote speakers: Prof Marek Safjan, judge at the CJEU, a specialist of constitutional law and keen interest around constitutional identity and Prof Piotr Hofmański, President of the International Criminal Court [ICC], a specialist of criminal and international law heading the ICC since 2015. The ICC recently took a brave step in the context of the Ukrainian War.
Read more...
Programme
Keynote speeches
Introduction by Vânia Costa-Ramos, ECBA Vice Chair, Portugal
Prof. Marek Safjan, Judge of the Court of Justice of the EU
Prof. Piotr Hofmański, President of the International Criminal Court
Panel 1 - Rule of Law and Independence of the Legal Profession
Chair: Mikołaj Pietrzak, Dean of the Warsaw Bar Association, Poland
- Judge Dariusz Mazur, Vice President of the Association of Judges “Themis”, Poland
- Judge Tamasz Matusik, National Judicial Council, Hungary
- Katarzyna Wiśniewska, defence lawyer, Poland
Panel 2 - Human Rights
Chair: Alexis Anagnostakis, ECBA Human Rights Officer, Greece
- Małgorzata Mączka-Pacholak, defence lawyer, Poland
- Alaksiej Michalevic, defence lawyer, Belarus
- Maria Hessen-Jacobsen, ECBA HR Committee, Norway
- Edward Grange, defence lawyer, United Kingdom
- Anna Demenko, defence lawyer, Poland
Panel 3 - War crimes and crimes against humanity in the context of the war in Ukraine
Chair: Vincent Asselineau, Chair of the ECBA. France
- Natacha Ivanovic, defence lawyer, Croatia/France
- Valentyn Gvozdiy, Vice President of the Ukrainian National Bar Association
- Marie-Hélène Proulx, President, International Criminal Court Bar Association
Background documents:
Panel 2 - UK Bill of Rights
PHOTO IMPRESSION