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Information for students
Our chair usually offers a seminar in both the fall and spring semesters. Information on this can be found here on the website as soon as the faculty publishes the list of seminars offered.
After booking a seminar, you will be contacted by the chair after the cancellation period to discuss how to proceed. The obligatory preliminary discussions for the seminars usually take place one to two months after the end of the cancellation period.
Please note that a reasonable contribution towards expenses may be charged for the seminars.
Seminar Information Spring Semester 2025 (PDF, 150 KB)
Until a few years ago, democracy was regarded as an undisputed model for the organization of political communities. The future seemed to hold out the promise that authoritarian states could also find their way to democratic structures. Since then, the situation has changed fundamentally. Democratic constitutional states are under pressure – from outside by authoritarian regimes and from within by political forces that seek authoritarian structures, albeit with a continuing democratic façade, often discussed under the heading “populism”. A crisis of democracy is widely recognized and discussed. It has become a core topic in discussions of constitutional and legal issues.
In this context, the seminar will examine the constitutional foundations of democracy from a comparative constitutional perspective. The constitutions of Switzerland and India will be the focus of the seminar, providing different and instructive case studies for how democracy can be realized, what problems need to be overcome, and how a democracy can be preserved even in times of crises and profound global challenges. The comparison should highlight similarities and differences in the regulations and their reasons and determine what could be learned from the comparative findings in terms of constitutional doctrine and constitutional theory. Not least, it will be a matter of ascertaining the normative foundations of democracies and asking how the idea of realizing dignity and autonomy of people in democratic orders can be kept alive in the future as well.
The seminar will address these questions from a constitutional, historical, and legal-philosophical perspective. The constitutional order of India is a particularly fascinating subject of study. It is of great international importance. It regulates the lives of 1.3 billion people. It is the outstanding example of a post-decolonial constitution of a country in the Global South that has created and continues to uphold a democratic order bound by fundamental rights. In addition, a free trade agreement was concluded in 2024 between the EFTA states, including Switzerland, and India, which promises closer relations between these states.
The seminar will be taught by the outstanding constitutional lawyer Prof. Dr. Arun Thiruvengadam, National Law School, Bangalore, India's leading law school, with which the Faculty of Law also has a partnership including student exchange programs.
The seminar papers can be written in German or English. The topics will be determined in a preliminary discussion after the seminar places have been allocated, based on the students' preferences.
Please direct questions to: lst.mahlmann@ius.uzh.ch
Topics:
Within these thematic blocks, different areas of focus can be selected depending on the student's interests.
