Professor Wiktor Osiatynski Teaches Course on Constitution-Making Based on Real-World Experience

This semester, CEU Professor Wiktor Osiatynski is teaching a special one-week intensive course on “Challenges to Open Society during Transition.” Reflecting on his experience as an advisor to several Constitutional Committees of the Polish Parliament from 1990-1997, Professor Osiatynski is sharing valuable insights with SPP students on prospects, challenges, and threats to open societies during the transition to constitutionalism and rule of law, democracy, and open markets.

“Lessons learned during transition are very often not reflected in actual constitution-making,” Professor Osiatynski said during a session of the course last week, “because the main players involved are trying to keep as much power as they had before the transition process began.”

Prompted by Professor Osiatynski’s insights, students are discussing and debating the “bones and meat” of creating a long-lasting and stable constitution for countries in transition. Pratik Phadkule (SPP ’15) commented, “Professor Osiantyski's class was an important learning opportunity for all of us. He brings years of experience of working on democratic transitions and constitution-making in different countries around the world. In lectures, he not only talks about the case studies from the books but also shares his personal experiences with us which makes the class even more interesting and engaging.”

A lawyer and sociologist by training, Professor Osiatynski is also a professor at the CEU Legal Program and counsel to the Open Society Foundation. He has taught courses on legal and human rights issues at universities across the U.S. and Europe. He began giving lectures at SPP in 2012. To hear more from Professor Osiatynski, watch the video below.