Research/art/teacher profile of a person
Name and surname:
M. A. Max Steuer, PhD.
Document type:
Research/art/teacher profile of a person
The name of the university:
Comenius University Bratislava
The seat of the university:
Šafárikovo námestie 6, 818 06 Bratislava

I. - Basic information

I.1 - Surname
Steuer
I.2 - Name
Max
I.3 - Degrees
M.A., LL.M., PhD.
I.4 - Year of birth
1993
I.5 - Name of the workplace
Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Arts, Department of Political Science
I.6 - Address of the workplace
Gondova 2, 811 02 Bratislava
I.7 - Position
Principal Investigator
I.8 - E-mail address
max.steuer@uniba.sk
I.9 - Hyperlink to the entry of a person in the Register of university staff
https://www.portalvs.sk/regzam/detail/31930?mode=full&do=filterForm-submit&surname=steuer&sort=surname&employment_state=no&filter=Vyh%C4%BEada%C5%A5
I.10 - Name of the study field in which a person works at the university
Political Science
I.11 - ORCID iD
0000-0001-7638-5865

II. - Higher education and further qualification growth

II.1 - First degree of higher education
II.a - Name of the university or institution
Comenius University in Bratislava
II.b - Year
2014 / 2017
II.c - Study field and programme
Political Science / Law
II.2 - Second degree of higher education
II.a - Name of the university or institution
Central European University / University of Cambridge
II.b - Year
2015 / 2021
II.c - Study field and programme
International Relations and European Studies / Law
II.3 - Third degree of higher education
II.a - Name of the university or institution
Comenius University in Bratislava
II.b - Year
2019
II.c - Study field and programme
Political Science
II.4 - Associate professor
II.5 - Professor
II.6 - Doctor of Science (DrSc.)

III. - Current and previous employment

III.a - Occupation-position III.b - Institution III.c - Duration
Principal Investigator Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Arts 07/2024 - today
Associate Professor O.P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School 04/2023 - today (on unpaid leave)
Assistant Professor Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Arts 01/2022 - 06/2024
Assistant Professor O.P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School 08/2020 - 03/2023
Research Fellow Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Arts 10/2019 - 09/2020
Assistant Comenius University in Bratislava, UNESCO Chair for Human Rights Education 10/2015 - 09/2017

IV. - Development of pedagogical, professional, language, digital and other skills

IV.a - Activity description, course name, other IV.b - Name of the institution IV.c - Year
European Forum Alpbach - Participatory Leadership – A Practice of Leading by Dialogue and Co-Creation European Forum Alpbach 2021
Learning to Teach Online Coursera 2020
Summer School: Concept Analysis in the Web Environment International Political Science Association 2018
Berlin Summer School in Social Sciences Humboldt University, Berlin 2016
Various language courses, human rights education training, short methodological courses (process tracing, data analysis in MaxQDA) Various (House of Europe, European Consortium for Political Research, Jagiellonian University pin Kraków, Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development etc.) 2014-2020
Erasmus+ Staff Training Mobilities (digital education and sustainable rule of law) University of Naples Federico II (digital education), Radboud University Nijmegen (sustainable rule of law) 2023

V. - Overview of activities within the teaching career at the university

V.1 - Overview of the profile courses taught in the current academic year according to study programmes
V.2 - Overview of the responsibility for the delivery, development and quality assurance of the study programme or its part at the university in the current academic year
V.3 - Overview of the responsibility for the development and quality of the field of habilitation procedure and inaugural procedure in the current academic year
V.4 - Overview of supervised final theses
V.4.1 - Number of currently supervised theses
V.4.a - Bachelor's (first degree)
2
V.4.b - Diploma (second degree)
1
V.4.c - Dissertation (third degree)
0
V.4.2 - Number of defended theses
V.4.a - Bachelor's (first degree)
4
V.4.b - Diploma (second degree)
1
V.4.c - Dissertation (third degree)
0
V.5 - Overview of other courses taught in the current academic year according to study programmes
V.5.a - Name of the course V.5.b - Study programme V.5.c - Degree V.5.d - Field of study
Institutions of the EU Political Science undergraduate Political Science

VI. - Overview of the research/artistic/other outputs

VI.1 - Overview of the research/artistic/other outputs and the corresponding citations
VI.1.1 - Number of the research/artistic/other outputs
VI.1.a - Overall
65 (estimate)
VI.1.b - Over the last six years
33 (estimate)
VI.1.2 - Number of the research/artistic/other outputs registered in the Web of Science or Scopus databases
VI.1.a - Overall
16 (not counting indexed book chapters and with consideration of the current indexing status of the journals)
VI.1.b - Over the last six years
14 (not counting indexed book chapters and with consideration of the current indexing status of the journals)
VI.1.3 - Number of citations corresponding to the research/artistic/other outputs
VI.1.a - Overall
65 (according to Google Scholar, discounting the approximate number of self-citations)
VI.1.b - Over the last six years
47 (according to Google Scholar, discounting the approximate number of self-citations)
VI.1.4 - Number of citations registered in the Web of Science or Scopus databases
VI.1.a - Overall
9 (discounting the approximate number of self-citations)
VI.1.b - Over the last six years
7 (discounting the approximate number of self-citations)
VI.1.5 - Number of invited lectures at the international, national level
VI.1.a - Overall
11
VI.1.b - Over the last six years
9
VI.2 - The most significant research/artistic/other outputs
1

Steuer, M. 2024. States of Emergency, Simultaneous Overreach and Underreach, and the COVID-19 Pan(dem)ic. In: European Journal of Risk Regulation, 15(1), pp. 87-101. ISSN 2190-8249.

2

Steuer, M. 2022. The Role of Judicial Craft in Improving Democracy's Resilience: The Case of Party Bans in Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia. In: European Constitutional Law Review, 18(3), pp. 440-465. ISSN 1574-0196.

3

Steuer, M. 2022. Authoritarian Populism, Conceptions of Democracy, and the Hungarian Constitutional Court: The Case of Political Participation. In: International Journal of Human Rights, 26(7), pp. 1207-1229. ISSN 1744-053X.

4

Steuer, M. 2019. Militant Democracy on the Rise: The Consequences of Legal Restrictions on Extreme Speech in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. In: Review of Central and East European Law, 44(2), pp. 162-201. ISSN 1573-0352. 

5

Steuer, M. 2017. The (Non)political Taboo: Why Democracies Ban Holocaust Denial. In: Sociológia – Slovak Sociological Review, 49(6), pp. 673-693. ISSN 0049 – 1225. 

VI.3 - The most significant research/artistic/other outputs over the last six years
1

Steuer, M. 2024. States of Emergency, Simultaneous Overreach and Underreach, and the COVID-19 Pan(dem)ic. In: European Journal of Risk Regulation, 15(1), pp. 87-101. ISSN 2190-8249.

3

Steuer, M. 2022. The Role of Judicial Craft in Improving Democracy's Resilience: The Case of Party Bans in Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia. In: European Constitutional Law Review, 18(3), pp. 440-465. ISSN 1574-0196.

4

Steuer, M. 2022. Authoritarian Populism, Conceptions of Democracy, and the Hungarian Constitutional Court: The Case of Political Participation. In: International Journal of Human Rights, 26(7), pp. 1207-1229. ISSN 1744-053X.

5

Steuer, M. 2019. Militant Democracy on the Rise: The Consequences of Legal Restrictions on Extreme Speech in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. In: Review of Central and East European Law, 44(2), pp. 162-201. ISSN 1573-0352. 

VI.4 - The most significant citations corresponding to the research/artistic/other outputs
1

[n1] 2021 zz ~ Martinico, G.. - In: Filtering Populist Claims to Fight Populism . - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021 ; S. 37, 186-211 ; WOS ; BKCI-SSH

Citing: Steuer, M. 2019. Militant Democracy on the Rise: The Consequences of Legal Restrictions on Extreme Speech in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. In: Review of Central and East European Law, 44(2), pp. 162-201. ISSN 1573-0352. 

2

2021 - Rak, J. - The Global Authoritarian Turn, Democratic Vulnerability, and Geo-digital Competition. - In: Geopolitics, online first, s. 1 DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2021.1947694.

Citing Steuer, M. 2020. Militant Democracy and COVID-19: Protecting the Regime, Protecting Rights? In: Hong Kong Journal of Law and Public Affairs, 2, pp. 131-145.

3

2022 - Smith, B.C. - Judges and Democratization: Judicial Indepependence in New Democracies. London: Routledge, s. 225.

Citing: Láštic, E. and Steuer, M. 2018. The Slovak Constitutional Court: The Third Legislator? In: Pócza, K. (ed.). Constitutional Politics and the Judiciary. Decision Making in Central and Eastern Europe. London: Routledge, pp. 184-213.


4

2024 - Poyet C. et al. - What makes democratic institutions resilient to crises? Applying a novel analytical framework to the case of Finland - In: Journal of Contemporary European Studies, s. 258. DOI: 10.1080/14782804.2023.2230456.

Citing: Steuer, M. 2021. Slovakia’s Democracy and the COVID-19 Pandemic: When Executive Communication Fails. Verfassungsblog,

5

2024 - Dressel, B. - Bonoan, C.R. - Courts and authoritarian populism in Asia: Reflections from Indonesia and the Philippines. In: Law & Policy, s. 278. DOI: 10.1111/lapo.12240.

Citing: Steuer, M. 2022. Authoritarian Populism, Conceptions of Democracy, and the Hungarian Constitutional Court: The Case of Political Participation. In: International Journal of Human Rights, 26(7), pp. 1207-1229. ISSN 1744-053X. (Also published in Grover, S. (ed.). 2023. Judicial Activism in an Age of Populism. London: Routledge, Chapter 4.)

VI.5 - Participation in conducting (leading) the most important research projects or art projects over the last six years
1

HARVEST, 2024-2026, Harvesting Judicial Reservoirs of Resilience to Autocratization for Rebuilding Democracy in the Visegrad Four, Funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan as part of Next Generation EU (excellent researcher support scheme, project No. 09I03-03-V04-00240).

https://fphil.uniba.sk/en/harvest

Principal Investigator

HARVEST (Harvesting Judicial Reservoirs of Resilience to Autocratization for Rebuilding Democracy in the Visegrad Four) is devoted to employ a multi-method approach towards locating reservoirs of judicial resilience to autocratization in the Visegrad Four. Focusing on constitutional courts (CCs), HARVEST supplements the prevalent focus on non-judicial sources of resilience or mechanisms operating at the level of the EU institutions. HARVEST pays considerable attention to the internal environment at the CCs and the ideas emerging in interaction between the actors within the CC as an entry point to understand their potential to challenge authoritarian leanings. Combining political science theories of democracy and courts with doctrinal and contextual studies of judicial decisions, HARVEST offers, for the first time in the 2000s, a close comparative study of the CCs in the Visegrad Four across divergent regime contexts and in interaction with EU law. HARVEST takes into consideration the political change surrounding the operation of the CCs in the region, among which some themselves have undergone autocratization, but their ambivalent role in further de-democratization of the political regime remains understudied. The project employs insights from global scholarship with particular attention on non-European contexts of democratic jurisdictions whose CCs face similar challenges.

2

COST Action, 2022-2026, Cultural Expertise Junior Network, K-PERITIA

Research Team and Management Committee member for Slovakia

https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA22101/

K-Peritia proposes an unprecedented network of junior experts who have preliminary experience as experts in court, members of the legal professions who are interested in cultural expertise, senior scholars with experience of expert witnessing and representatives of key international organisations, NGOs and capacity building institutions. The challenges of K-Peritia are 1) developing an international network for bridging the gap between the supply and the demand for professional cultural expertise which overcomes elitist and expensive features; 2) enabling the professional engagement of junior experts; and 3) digitalisation of the knowledge on cultural expertise. These three challenges will articulate on a newly designed transdisciplinary platform: a multilingual, open access, and cross-jurisdictional socio-legal database. The Action will foster transdisciplinary collaboration among the various disciplines of the social sciences; will establish cultural expertise more firmly as a research category in all the countries of this network, foster a better collaboration among experts and the legal professions and encourage the professional engagement of junior experts, and create the instruments for the adoption of cultural expertise which are respectful of the ethics and the deontologies of the involved professions. The deliverables of K-Peritia will be the launch of Cultural Expertise Digital Network including a training manual of use-cases for an extended use of the socio-legal database; a system of experts’ accreditation; training and capacity building module; a volume on cultural expertise and conflict resolution; and country specific policy-making guidelines on the adoption of cultural expertise also including a guide for non-discriminatory language in litigation. Acted as guest co-editor (together with L. Holden, M. Seth and A. Mishra) of the thematic section of the Jindal Global Law Review (2023, vol. 14, no. 2).

Relatedly, collaborator in the project 'Cultural Expertise in Europe: What is it useful for?' (EURO-EXPERT), funded by the European Research Council (Consolidator Grant project n. 681814).

Link: https://culturalexpertise.net

The project aims at a systematic interdisciplinary study of the phenomenon of "cultural expertise", pertaining to the involvement of experts on societies and cultures to in-court and out-of-court processes in a wide range of areas of public and private law.

Responsible for an analysis of the reasons, contexts and impacts of the involvement of expert witnesses in 'crimes of extremism' in Slovakia (published article and chapter in edited volume).

3

VEGA, 2023-2025, Illiberalism and the Constitution of the Slovak Republic: Political Discourse Analysis

Principal Investigator

https://fphil.uniba.sk/en/illiberalismsk/

The Slovak Constitution embraces democracy and the rule of law. Globally and historically, however, commitment to these ideas has sometimes correlated with the erosion of democracy. The risk of erosion also in Slovakia prompts asking whether the Slovak Constitution contains ideas, which constrain democracy and the rule of law, considered as illiberal. If so, which political actors defend and which actors contest them? Addressing these questions advances the understanding of democracy’s resilience, and maps the use of the terminology of illiberalism in Slovakia. Furthermore, it advances political science research on constitutions and constitutionalism. At the theoretical level we systematize the state of art on the use and approaches to the concept of illiberalism. Empirically, we analyze original data from the Slovak Constitution and its amendments, parliamentary discourse, decisions of the Constitutional Court on interpretation of the Constitution, and academic writings. The main output is a monograph.

4

Coordinator for Slovakia in the project 'Protection of human rights in states of emergency: Theory and practice of the Visegrad Group countries' supported by the Polish National Science Centre (about - Centrum Interdyscyplinarnych Studiów Konstytucyjnych - Wydział Prawa i Administracji (uj.edu.pl))

The project aims at a systematic mapping of the impact of legal regulation and political practice of the states of emergency in the V4 countries on the standards and practices of human rights protection.

Event reports (2021): https://cisk.wpia.uj.edu.pl/states-of-emergency/events.

Published co-edited volume by Routledge with one single-authored and two co-authored chapters:

https://www.routledge.com/States-of-Emergency-and-Human-Rights-Protection-The-Theory-and-Practice/Florczak-Wator-Gardos-Orosz-Malir-Steuer/p/book/9781032637457

5

Collaborator in the projects led by Prof. Jozef Bátora, PhD.

EU3D (Differentiation, Dominance, Democracy) (Horizon 2020, Grant Agreement no. 822419), member of Working Groups 4 and 5 focused on the analysis of parliamentary discourses and reform proposals on the future of the EU (Frontpage - EU3D (uio.no)) in the context of the theoretical framework of the project focused on the conditions of democratic functioning in the EU in the context of differentiation.

Link: https://www.eu3d.uio.no/research/

Contribution to research reports: https://www.eu3d.uio.no/publications/eu3d-research-brief-1-2021-gora.html.

https://www.eu3d.uio.no/publications/eu3d-reports/eu3d-report-14-gora-zgaga.html

https://www.eu3d.uio.no/publications/eu3d-data/database-reform-proposals.html

Edited volume contribution in preparation (2024).

Collaborator in the project funded by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV) 'The European Union's Recognition Order and the Small Member States'

Link: https://fphil.uniba.sk/en/research-at-the-faculty-of-arts-comenius-university-in-bratislava/research-projects/national-projects/

Responsible for the analysis of the media representations of the EU in crises in selected state-wide newspapers in Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia.

Results published in: Steuer, M. 2019. Newspaper Portrayal of the EU in Crises in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary: The Union’s Imagined Linearity? In: Bátora, J., Fossum, J. E. (eds.). Towards a Segmented European Political Order. The European Union’s Post-Crises Conundrum. London: Routledge, pp. 199-224.

Why the EU Needs ‘De-crisising’. Crossroads Europe, October 2017: https://crossroads.ideasoneurope.eu/2017/10/02/article-18/

VII. - Overview of organizational experience related to higher education and research/artistic/other activities

VII.a - Activity, position VII.b - Name of the institution, board VII.c - Duration
Vice-Chair of the Student Section (2015-2017) and Member (2017-2019) of the Academic Senate, Comenius University, Faculty of Arts Comenius University, Faculty of Arts 2015-2019
General Editor, Cambridge International Law Journal, Committee Member and Summer Session Convener, Wolfson Research Event University of Cambridge (Faculty of Law and Wolfson College) 2019-2020
Head of the Academic Department, Vice-President, Editor-in-Chief of Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science and Coordinator of the Digital Education Project International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS) 2016-2018 (Head of IAPSS Academic Department), 2017-2018 (Vice-President), 2018-2021 (Editor-in-Chief of IAPSS Politikon), 2018-2022 (Coordinator of the Digital Education Project)
Founding Advisory Board of the CEE Chapter of the International Society of Public Law International Society of Public Law 2018-current
Member of the Slovak Helsinki Committee (regular involvement in the Human Rights Olympics) Slovak Helsinki Committee 2012-2023
Member of Allianz Alumni Network Allianz Kulturstiftung 2015-2023 (network dissolved)
Reviews Editor Jindal Global Law Review O.P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School 2022/10-2023/12

VIII. - Overview of international mobilities and visits oriented on education and research/artistic/other activities in the given field of study

VIII.a - Name of the institution VIII.b - Address of the institution VIII.c - Duration (indicate the duration of stay) VIII.d - Mobility scheme, employment contract, other (describe)
European University Viadrina Frankfurt - Oder (Germany) July - August 2017 (1 month) Viadrina International Programme - for graduates (scholarship for a one-month acquaintance stay, https://www.europa-uni.de/en/struktur/unileitung/projekte/vip/index.html)
Örebro University, School of Law, Psychology and Social Work Örebro (Sweden) 09/2017 - 02/2018 (5 months) Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (scholarship of The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research in collaboration with Comenius University)
University of Oxford, Faculty of Law, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies Oxford (UK) 03/2018 - 06/2018 (4 months) Scholarship of the Tatra Bank Foundation (Programme: "Students to the World")
WZB Berlin Social Science Center Berlin (Germany) 07/2018 - 11/2018 (5 months) The National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic
Washington State University, School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs Pullman, WA, USA 01/2019 - 06/2019 (6 months) Fulbright Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies (J. W. Fulbright Commission, http://www.fulbright.sk/uvod)
University of Liverpool, School of Law and Social Justice Liverpool, United Kingdom 01/2023 - 02/2023 (three weeks) Jan Hus Foundation Scholarship
University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law (iCourts) Copenhagen, Denmark 12/2023 (three weeks) Grant of the O.P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School (research stay)
Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law Oñati, Spain 01/2024 (two weeks) Residence grant for visiting scholars using the IISL Library
Central European University, Department of Legal Studies Vienna, Austria 02/2024 - 07/2024 (6 months) Action Austria-Slovakia postdoctoral fellowship

IX. - Other relevant facts

IX.a - If relevant, other activities related to higher education or research/artistic/other activities are mentioned
  • Regular contributor to academic blogs and media (for example, Verfassungsblog, Denník N).
  • Expert witness ad hoc in the case decided by the Specialized Criminal Court of Slovakia no. BB-4T/36/2017 (crimes of extremism)
  • Project coordinator, educational and awareness-raising project "Talking Courts" (2022-2024), Talking Courts (uniba.sk)
  • Reviewer of one or more manuscripts for academic journals including Constitutional Political Economy, European Journal of Risk Regulation, Learned Publishing and others.
Date of last update
2025-01-23