Introduction The aim of my research is to present the Congress of Ljubljana (1821), which can sometimes be overlooked at least when compared to its more well-known counterpart, the 1815 Vienna Congress. It is worth mentioning that in the past years- Dr. Raphaël Cahen ’s extensive work comes to mind- there has been more research conducted about the said congress and its broader role in the Holy Alliance’s politics, especially in honour of the congress’ 200th anniversary. In the very short span of time I have somehow ambitiously set myself on to answer some of the budding questions: Was the Congress of Ljubljana merely a marginal diplomatic gathering of the great European powers? In what ways did inequalities among its participants become evident? And how was the congress represented in contemporary media? Due to a bit of an unsuccess in regarding the research with primary sources and shorter time span compared to the previous EUTopia Collected Learning Communitiy cycles, my c...
LJ CASE: ‘Our rights in a new constitution!’ : the role of women groups in the reevaluation of constitutional reproductive rights in late 20th century Slovenia
Introduction The early 90s were a time of huge political, cultural and systemic change for the newly independent country of Slovenia. The recent break-up of Yugoslavia had been a long-time coming due to both economic, political and national tensions rising within the Socialist Federal Republic all throught the 1980s; nevertheless, Slovenia’s split from it in the summer of 1991 following the Ten Day War had left the country in a relatively uncertain situation in most areas of life, the legal order not being exempt. One of the more pressing issues, as it would be for most freshly independent states, was that of a new constitution; and, within it, there came the issue of Article 55. Today, Article 55 of the Slovenian Constitution protects the freedom of childbearing, including the right to contraception, reproductive healthcare and, arguably most importantly, the right to abortion (These rights are not all enshrined within the text of the article, but instead within its official interpret...