Renáta Uitz started teaching comparative constitutional law at CEU in 2001 and became a professor of law in 2009. Her major research interests lie in transition to and from constitutional democracy, the protection of individual autonomy and religious liberty. Her current work focuses on illiberal constitutional practices in the European Union and the normalization of illiberal constitutionalism around the world.
She is a co-PI in the Jean Monnet Network BRIDGE that explores how four intersecting crises (including Brexit and the rule of law crisis) shape the future of the European Union. She studies the trajectories and effects of the EU's rule of law crisis, the resulting shifts in the roles (and powers) of European institutions and the differentiation in EU governance such changes trigger. As a co-PI in the multidisciplinary research network investigating the origins and iterations of illiberal constitutionalism in East Central Europe, funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung (2021-25), her work traces the emergence of illiberal Christian democracy in the EU on the heels of domestic constitutional and policy changes.
Her most recent book publication is the Routledge Handbook of Illiberalism, co-edited with András Sajó and Stephen Holmes (Routledge 2021). Her other books include The Constitution of Freedom: An Introduction to Legal Constitutionalism (OUP 2017) and the co-edited volume Critical Essays on Human Rights Criticism (Eleven 2020).
Her earlier research in comparative public law covered a wide range of subjects on transition to constitutional democracy, including transformative constitutional adjudication, transitional justice and the rule of law, and the accession of post-communist member states to the EU. She published extensively on the protection of individual autonomy, including LGBTQ+ rights and religious freedom. Her work in comparative public law has a global reach and reflects a strong commitment to inter-discriplinarity.
Previously she served as chair (director) of the Comparative Constitutional Law program (2007-20), founding co-director of the Clinical Specialization and as head of the Department of Legal Studies (2012-15, 2018-20). Between 2013-2021 she was co-director of the annual CEU summer course on Constitution-building in Africa. In February 2022 she joins CEU's Democracy Institute as a co-director.
