Reading Group (spring 2021)
JUDr. Zuzana Vikarská, MJur, MPhil, Ph.D.
Reading Group (spring 2021)
Info
Term
Spring 2021

This is a course designed primarily for PhD students but open also to motivated students of other programmes, including Mgr., Bc., or Erasmus. Every semester we read either a selected book or a set of articles, book chapters or other texts dedicated to a given topic. We gradually read our weekly portions of assigned readings and then meet to discuss the content of the readings and our follow-up thoughts and ideas. The atmosphere of this course will (hopefully) be informal, creative, and intellectually stimulating.

In the spring of 2021, we will read texts about constitutional interpretation - see sylabus below.

The course will run online on Monday evenings (18-20) in a virtual classroom in MS Teams (code: cc4mdoi).

Would you like to join? 
You will be most welcome!

The syllabus can be downloaded below. Every week, one student will be asked to prepare questions for discussion which will be published in advanced in this interactive syllabus. The questions should be sent to Zuzana Vikarská via chat in MS Teams by noon on Friday of the preceding week.

Of course, all the assigned readings are available for download by the students enrolled in this course.

As for the conditions for obtaining credits at the end of the semester, they are still open to discussion. I will especially welcome comments and recommendations from those who participated in this course in previous semester(s) and who therefore have ideas how to make the class better and generally more enjoyable. For now, the conditions are:

  • active class participation
    • two absences are OK, no excuse needed; any extra absence can be compensated by a 2-page paper that summarises the content of the assigned readings
    • "active" means that you get actively involved in the discussion and show that you have read the readings; if you decide to only listen, you submit a one-pager after the class in which you express your own points in reaction to the claims presented by other discussants (and show that you have read the readings)
  • moderation of one class - there are as many classes as there are students in this course, so it should work smoothly - go ahead and pick "your" week, all the necessary information is in the syllabus! (And do not forget to send the questions by noon on Friday of the preceding week.)
  • ...and that's it! 🙂 - in case of any questions, do get in touch, I will be happy to help!

Before the Easter break, we agreed to continue reading Mark Tushnet's book. Therefore, the readings until the end of the semester will be as follows:

  • Monday 12 April (moderated by Tereza): Ch 3+4, pp. 44-78
  • Monday 19 April (moderated by Pavlína): Ch 5+6, pp. 79-108
  • Monday 26 April (moderated by Marek): Ch 7+8, pp. 109-146
  • Monday 3 May (moderated by Jana S.): Ch 9+10, pp. 147-173
  • Monday 10 May (moderated by Jana K.): Ch 11+12, pp. 174-206
  • Monday 17 May (moderated by Jan B.): Ch 12+13, pp. 207-240
  • Monday 24 May (voluntary, only for those who want to finish the book together): Ch 14+15, pp. 241-281

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