Between 6 and 10 July 2026, Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogotá hosted the 12th World Congress of Constitutional Law (WCCL 2026), organised under the aegis of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL-AIDC) under the general theme “Sustainable Constitutionalism: Answers for a Changing World”.
The Congress is the most important scientific event in the world devoted to constitutional law and comparative constitutionalism. The 2026 edition brought together over 2,500 participants from five continents: researchers, constitutional judges, professors, practitioners and doctoral students. The programme featured four plenary sessions on democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the relationship between constitutionalism and private actors, together with an impressive array of thematic workshops: artificial intelligence, digital democracy, judicial independence, constitutional dialogue, federalism, environmental protection, gender equality, constitutional security and many more.
The ARDC delegation
The Romanian Association of Constitutional Law was represented by Prof. Marieta Safta, President of the ARDC, and Prof. Elena-Simina Tănăsescu, Honorary President of the ARDC and President of the Constitutional Court of Romania.
The delegation took part in the IACL-AIDC Council Meeting of 8 July 2026, the statutory meeting at which the outgoing President’s report and the Secretariat’s activity were presented and elections were held for the new IACL leadership: the President and First Vice-President, the Executive Committee, the leadership of the Scientific Council, the Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General, and the new Honorary President. The agenda also covered the IACL’s strategic directions for the 2026–2030 term. The ARDC congratulated the new leadership and, in particular, the new President, Prof. Selin Esen.
Prof. Marieta Safta took part in Workshop 13 – Judicial Independence (convenors César Landa and Alexei Trochev), devoted to the constitutional guarantees of judicial independence and the relationship between independence and accountability, and in Workshop 14 – Constitutional Dialogues: Judicial and Extrajudicial Dimensions of Constitutional Courts Communication (convenors Tania Groppi, Irene Spigno and Maria Lecis). She was also among the participants selected for the Mini-Public on “Democracy as a Human Right”, in the thematic axis “Normative Contents of the Right to Democracy”: an innovative deliberative format bringing together participants from many constitutional systems in a collective reflection on the normative content of the right to democracy. The side programme also included a visit to the Constitutional Court of Colombia.
Prof. Elena-Simina Tănăsescu joined the panel of women presidents of constitutional courts, co-chaired the workshop on “Peace and Constitutionalism” and spoke in the special session “Ius constitutionale commune in Latin America and Europe”, alongside Armin von Bogdandy (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) and Manuel José Cepeda, former President of the Constitutional Court of Colombia and of the IACL-AIDC. Details are available on the Constitutional Court’s website.
The IACL-AIDC Prizes
A novelty of the 2026 edition was the launch of the IACL-AIDC Prizes. The Prize for the Best Book went to Prof. Melissa Crouch (University of New South Wales) for The Palimpsest Constitution: The Social Life of Constitutions in Myanmar, with an honourable mention for Mariana Velasco-Rivera (Maynooth University). The Prize for the Promotion of Democracy, Human Rights and Peace was awarded to Prof. Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa, and the journal Constitutional Studies launched the “Ran Hirschl” Prize for the best article, awarded to Prof. Gautam Bhatia.
The ARDC thanked the IACL-AIDC and Universidad Externado de Colombia for an impeccably organised Congress, with special appreciation for Prof. Gonzalo Ramírez Cleves, one of its principal architects and the special guest of the 2025 ARDC Roundtable, and for Prof. Richard Albert, who moderated the panel of women presidents of constitutional courts. More information: wccl2026.uexternado.edu.co.