The two-day István Bibó Centennial Memorial Conference in Szeged included three sessions on Bibó and his legacy in English, French, and Hungarian. István Bibó was chosen for this conference for a variety of reasons, including his ties to Szeged, but also his contributions to public law and politics, as well as his thought-provoking and often prophetic thoughts. The Hungarian session was themed “The separation of branches of power once and for all,” while the English session was titled “External limits of public power” and the French session was headlined “The internal limits of public power.”

The Hungarian-language session, subtitled “István Bibó - A Career and a Life's Work” was moderated by Prof. Dr. László Trócsányi, Rector of Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church. The event was then inaugurated with remarks by Prof. Dr. Gábor Szabó, Vice-Rector of the University of Szeged, and Prof. Dr. Márta Görög, Dean of the Faculty of Law.

Prof. Emer. János Martonyi, and Prof. Dr. Antal Tamás, the Deputy Dean, as well as Associate Professors Dr. Tibor Löffler and Dr. Barnabás Kiss delivered four excellent lectures to the audience. They spoke about the separation of powers, the link between Szeged and Bibó, governmental power counterbalances following the regime change, and Hungarian public administration reforms. István Bibó's son, István Bibó Jr., also attended the conference and gave a brief overview of his father's legacy.

Presentations were delivered in English in the morning and in French in the afternoon on the second day of the conference. The former was moderated by Dr. habil. Anikó Szalai. It included simultaneous English-Hungarian interpretation and it was comprised of lectures from Prof. Dr. Pál Sonnevend, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Eötvös Loránd University, Dr. Tamás Molnár of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, and Arta Rama-Hajrizi, former President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo, as well as Dr. Samantha Cheesman, a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law.

Their presentations focused on the concepts of separation of powers in multilevel constitutional systems, the effects of domestic law and the constraints of international law on the separation of powers, how the international community influences the separation of powers, and human rights provisions in the Kosovo Constitution, and how the separation of powers can be examined in light of Brexit in the UK.

Dr. Márton Sulyok moderated the final session in French, which also featured simultaneous interpretation from French to Hungarian. Four distinguished guest lecturers, including Prof. Dr. Bertrand Mathieu (Sorbonne, France), Dr. Natasa Colodrovschi-Danelciuc (Aix-Marseille, France), Dr. Péter Kruzslicz (Faculty of Law, SZTE), and Dr. Lara Karam Boustany (Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Lebanon), discussed the limits of internal public power.

These lectures covered topics such as the role of justice in the separation of powers, constitutional review and constitutional appeal as considered by the European Court of Human Rights, and the testing of the separation of powers in Lebanon, which is made up of multiple communities.