Conference at Ukrainian Free University tackles legal issues of parliamentary elections

MUNICH, German - The Ukrainian Free University (UFU) organized an international conference on the legal issues of parliamentary elections. The conference was held February 14-15 at the university building located on Pienzenauerstrasse.

Titled "Election and Jurisprudence - A Comparative Analysis: Germany (Bavaria), Ukraine and the United States," the conference brought together Canadian, German, Ukrainian and American scholars, members of parliaments, judges and high civil servants. Over 130 persons attended this academic gathering.

This international conference addressed four major themes in its three plenary sessions. They were the nature of electoral systems, the problem of voting rights, the role of electoral commissions and the adjudication of election disputes.

Leonid Rudnytzky, rector of the Ukrainian Free University, welcomed everyone in his opening remarks. Since Dr. Oleksander Lavrynovych, the minister of justice of Ukraine, was unable to attend, his keynote speech was made by Dr. Volodymyr Stretovych, chair of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on the Struggle with Organized Crime and Corruption. In the absence of Dr. Hans Gerhard Stockinger, member of the Bavarian Parliament, his keynote address was read by Dr. Reinhard Heydenreuter, director of the Bavarian Central Archives, Munich. The last keynote speech was delivered by Dr. Ludwig Spaenle, member of the Bavarian Parliament.

Dr. Bohdan A. Futey, judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington, and Stephen B. Nix, director of the Washington-based International Republican Institute gave papers at the first plenary session. The moderator was Dr. Heydenreuter.

Prof. Mykhailo Kostytskyi and Natalia Kushakova gave a jointly authored paper at the second plenary session. Dr. Kostytskyi is a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and Ms. Kushakova is a senior researcher at the same court.

Mykhailo Riabets, president of the Central Election Commission in Ukraine and Dr. Stretovych of the Ukrainian Parliament also addressed this second session with scholarly papers. The moderator was Ivan Myhul, dean, UFU faculty of government and political economy.

Dr. Dieter Blumenwitz, chair of international law, general state theory and political science of Würzburg University, and Johann Hahlen delivered scholarly papers at the third plenary session. Mr. Hahlen is the president of the German Federal Bureau of Statistics and the commissioner of German Federal Elections. The moderator was Dr. Hansjürgen Doss of the UFU, a retired member (1961-2002) of the German Federal Parliament, Berlin. Dr. Doss also delivered closing remarks at the end of the conference.

The conference was made possible thanks to the generosity of the International Republican Institute of Washington.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 30, 2003, No. 13, Vol. LXXI

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