Chairs
Christina Binder c.binder@unibw.de
Tania Groppi tania.groppi@unisi.it / groppi@unisi.it

Local government has usually been absent from debates on the pillars of constitutional law, such as democracy, human rights, rule of law and separation of powers. However, something has started to change in the last few years, especially in the context of democratic backsliding and backlash against human rights institutions. For example, the most recent democracy indicator, the V-Democracy Index, includes Local government index and regional government index within its dataset. Likewise, the role of local actors is more and more explored as tool to foster human rights implementation. Even more interestingly, some regional organisations, such as the Council of Europe, are increasingly considering the role of local authorities in the defence of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. In addition, the crisis of representative democracy at national level is drawing growing attention to participative mechanisms and bottom-up decision-making processes, which find an especially suitable size at local level. Also, the role of local government as guarantor of human rights is becoming more and more relevant, not only as far as social or environmental rights are concerned, but also as regards the execution of judgments and decisions of national and international courts or as “laboratories” for the use of new information technologies.

The workshop is aimed at exploring the role of the local level in protecting and enhancing democracy, human rights and the rule of law in different regions of the world, especially taking into account contexts of democratic backsliding, decay and backlash against human rights institutions.

Thus, we invite presentations to discuss:

• The local dimension of participative and deliberative democracy
• The interaction between local and national party systems
• Local self-government in context of democratic backsliding: resilience or capture? -The role of local self-government and the vertical separation of powers as a tool to protect the rule of law
• Local authorities as guarantors of the rule of law at local level, in the promotion of good governance and the fight against corruption and arbitrariness
• The execution of international judgments and decisions at local level
• The international dimension of local self-government, including international treaties on local self-government, the role of international organizations or city networks
• The protection and implementation of rights environmental rights, non-discrimination principle
• The local level, especially cities, as “laboratories” for the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence
• The role of local self-government in the fight against climate change