The International Association for Legislation are delighted to announce the 2020 IAL Athens Conference, which, due to Covid19 restrictions, will be held online on Thursday 11 February 2021. The 2020 IAL Athens Conference is co-organised and sponsored by the General Secretariat for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of the Presidency of the Hellenic Government, and chaired by the Chair of the IAL Hellenic Branch, General Secretary, Dr. Stylianos-Ioannis Koutnatzis.

The title of the conference is “A new model for quality of law-making: Greece and the executive state”.

The language of the conference is English, and a provisional programme is below:

Programme (updated 05.02.2021)

Day 1: 11 February 2021 A New Model for Quality of Law-Making: Greece and the Executive State

9:15-10.00: Opening and Keynote Address – Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister, Hellenic Republic

Keynote – Professor Dr. George Gerapetritis, Minister of the State, Hellenic Republic – The Executive State and Quality of Law-Making

10.00-11.30: The Parameters of Better Law-Making in Greece Chair: Professor Helen Xanthaki, UCL; President, IAL; Member, Committee for Quality Evaluation of the Law Making Process, General Secretariat for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs

Speakers:

– Dr. Stylianos-Ioannis G. Koutnatzis, LL.M. (Harvard), Secretary General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Presidency of the Government, Lecturer in Public Law at the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. Title: Greece’s New Law-Making Process – An Overview

– Spyridon Vlachopoulos, Professor of Public Law, Law School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, President of the Greek Committee for Quality Evaluation of the Law Making Process. Title: The Committee for Quality Evaluation of the Law-Making Process in Greece: Another one Law Drafting Committee or Something More?

– Agapi Galenianou-Chalkiadaki, Councillor of the Hellenic Council of State. Title: A First Take on the Legal Scrutiny of the Law Making Process.

– Dr. Varvara Georgopoulou, Dr. of parliamentary law and political science. Title: Impact Assessment Analysis: The New Key Tool for Better Legislation in Greece

– Dr. Spyros Vliamos, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy & Entrepreneurship, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Member of the Greek Committee for the Scrutiny of the Quality of the Law-Making Process, Chairman BoD & Academic Council Athens International College (ICBS). Title: The Political Economy of Impact Assessment

– Sotirios Karkalakos, Professor of Economics at the University of Piraeus, Member of the Greek Committee for the Scrutiny of the Quality of the Law-Making Process. Title: The Economic Consequences of Legal Framework

– Dr. Ilias Koromilas, General Secretariat for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Presidency of the Government, Hellenic Republic. Title: Better Regulation and the Secretariat General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of the Presidency of the Government: a Considerable Work Already in Progress

11.30-12:15: Discussion

12:15-13:30: Discussing the Transferability of the Greek Model to the EU and its Member States. Chair: Professor Ulrich Karpen, University of Hamburg, Honorary President, IAL

Speakers:

– Jurate Vaiciukaite, Council of the European Union, Quality of Legislation Unit

– Vassilis Nikitas, Economic Analyst, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN), European Commission

– Florentin Blanc, Senior Policy Analyst, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

– Stephan Naundorf, Chair of the Regulatory Policy Committee of the OECD, Federal Chancellery, Germany

– Karine Gilberg, Αssociate professor at the University of Paris X – Nanterre

– Franziska Brantner, Member of the German Bundestag

– Natia Karayianni, Senior Secretary to Parliamentary Committees, House of Representatives, The Republic of Cyprus

13:30-14:00: Discussion

14:00-14:30: Break

14:30-15:30: Taking the Greek Model for Better Legislation Further. Chair: Prof. Patricia Popelier, University of Antwerp, Vice President, IAL

Speakers:

– Dr. Constantin Stefanou, Director, Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies, Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. Title: Common Law Solutions for Civil Law Problems: Lessons from Greece’s Legislative Drafting Reforms

– Dr. Fotis Fitsilis, Head of Department for Scientific Documentation and Supervision, Scientific Service, Hellenic Parliament. Title: Legal Informatics and Interoperability Patterns in Support of the Greek Executive State

– Emmanouil Bougiakiotis, M. Jur (Oxford), General Secretariat for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Presidency of the Government, Hellenic Republic. Title: The Proportionality Principle as a Law Drafting Instrument: A Sceptical Approach

– Vassileios Koutsoubas, Democritus University of Thrace, General Secretariat for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Presidency of the Government, Hellenic Republic. Title: The Demos at the Heart of Greece΄s New Model for Quality Law-Making

– Dr. Maria Mousmouti, Lecturer in Law, IALS, University of London; Executive Director, Centre for European Constitutional Law Themistokles and Dimitris Tsatsos Foundation. Title: Building Synergies between the Government and Parliament to Ensure the Quality of Legislation: A Next Step for the Greek model?

– Dr. Panagiota Micheli, General Secretariat for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Presidency of the Government, Hellenic Republic. Title: Public Health Emergency and Law-Making: Lessons from Greece

15:30-16:30: Discussion

16:30-17:00: Concluding Remarks

Day 2: 12 February 2021

Better Law-Making and the Transposition of EU Legislation

10:00-11.30: The Challenges of Transposition in a United EU. Chair: Manuela Guggeis, Legal Service of the Council of the European Union  

Speakers:

– Prof. João Tiago Silveira, Professor of Law at the University of Lisbon. Title: The Copy/Paste Approach to Transpose EU Directives

– Prof. Dr. Wim J.M. Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University. Title: Transposition of EU Legislation into Domestic Law: Challenges Faced by National Parliaments

– Prof. Maria De Benedetto, Professor of Administrative Law at Roma Tre University. Title: Some Notes on Trust and Distrust in EU Legislation

– Demetris Lysandrou, Senior Counsel of the Republic, Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus. Title: The Cypriot Perspective on Transposition

11.15-13.30: Discussion

13.30-14:00: Break

14:00-15:00: The Practice of Transposition. Chair: Prof. Ulrich Karpen, University of Hamburg, Honorary President, IAL

Speakers:

– Markéta Whelanová, Department for Compatibility, Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. Title: Implementation of EU Regulations in the Czech Republic

Iwona Miedzinska, University of Warsaw; Office of Rail Transport, Poland. Title: Principles of Drafting EU Legal Acts – Practical Implications for the National Legislators

– Felipe Andrade, Research Fellow, Lisbon Centre for Research in Public Law, Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon & Eduardo Magrani, Ph.D. in Law, Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University, & Rui Tavares Lanceiro, Assistant Professor at the University of Lisbon Law School. Title: ‘Gold-Plating’ in Implementing EU Law: a Definition.

– Radek Radoslawski, Deputy Director of the Legislative Office, Chancellery of the Sejm, Republic of Poland. Title: Access to the Law in Force

15:00-15:30: Discussion 15:30-16:00: Concluding Remarks

Please submit abstracts for proposed papers on the Transposition of EU legislation and better law-making, at lawdep@gslegal.gov.gr no later than 18 December 2020 04 January 2021 (extended). Abstracts should not exceed 500 words.

Finally, the book “Legislation in Europe: A Country by Country Guide“, edited by Ulrich Karpen and Helen Xanthaki is now on the market. Most
of the 45 authors are on the Board of the IAL. This book is certainly a
basis to build on a multidisciplinary field of “legislation as
research and teaching” in a democratic system of governance.