The protection of political rights is considered a bulwark of any democratic system. Through which institutions and procedures are they meant to be enforced? Which challenges do they face in contemporary constitutional systems? These questions seem key in the present context in which constitutional democracies are in crisis, processes of autocratisation are spreading fast, external interferences with domestic politics are also growing apparently, and technological innovations make hard to keep control on the rules for political competition and electoral campaign. Indeed, political rights can be exercised in a number of ways, ranging from elections to instruments of participatory democracy and participation in political parties, just to give some examples. How effective is their implementation and which remedies can be envisaged against their violation? How do courts, independent authorities and representative institutions react to them and how they interact to ensure the political rights are properly guaranteed?

The XIth edition of the annual Conference of “Diritticomparati” tackles these questions putting leading national and international scholars with different backgrounds and expertise in conversation. In the first half day of the Conference, on 29 January afternoon, the speakers will engage with different models and mechanisms of enforcement of political rights both in the Global North and in the Global South. The session will be closed by the keynote speech by Aileen Kavanagh on “Protecting Political Rights as a Collaborative Constitutional Process”. The second half day, on 30 January in the morning, will first deal with the role of international and supranational actors in protecting electoral rights and, then, will explore common constitutional challenges to elections and political participation, including discrimination, authoritarianism and illiberal trends, and artificial intelligence.