15th Forum 2000 Coming to a Close with Questions on International Law, Eurozone Crisis or Religious Ethics

Fundamental dispositions for solving international war conflicts, advantages and disadvantages of their political settlement or legal action taken against war criminals. The second day of the Forum 2000 Conference engaged the remaining part of more than 130 registered expert panelists. The event comes to an official close on Tuesday evening, however, this year a part of its program stretches to Wednesday 12, 2011. It will be broadcast in cooperation with the Czech Radio Pilsen and some speakers will also attend smaller discussions at Prague‘s Goethe-Institut.

 

The opening panel discussion at the Forum Hall of Žofín Palace brought together a number of remarkable personalities from the fields of sociology, law, and religion. The professor of sociology and President of the Czech Christian Academy Mr. Tomáš Halík explained the fundamentals of law in three major monotheistic religious systems, while foreshadowing the relation between Christianity and secularized legal systems of today. Director of the Center for Law and Religion at St. John’s University, USA, Mr. Mark Movsesian discussed the origins of moral perspective in current legal practice. According to Mr. Movsesian, instead of religious ethics the stress was put on the responsibility of an individual, who can now make his ethical choices within the existing legal framework. The professor of theology at the University of Vienna Mr. Günter Virt interpreted the ever-growing stress on ethics and its practical implications as the response to the crisis of morality.

 

In cooperation with CERGE-EI the conference program included the topic of the Eurozone crisis. Mr. Alan Brown, the Group Chief Investment Officer at Schroder Investment Management, defined its current events as a “fundamentally political issue” and pointed out that integration would be a solution, however, lack of time and management act against it. He mentioned that the European Central Bank failed in regulating the market and that the mechanism is no longer valid. Mr. Vladimír Dlouhý, Economist and International Advisor at Goldman Sachs, labeled the lack of competitiveness in Europe as the cause of the crisis and stated that convergence in productivity was necessary for starting common currency. He also emphasized that American dollar was created by the US ethos rather than American elites, and that in Europe these elites failed.

 

Discussions on legal institutions in times of political transition were started by the news of Ms. Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukrainian ex-Prime Minister, who were found guilty of abusing her power and sentenced to 7-year imprisonment. According to Ms. Hana Lešenarová, the member of Corporate Council of the Forum 2000 Foundation, this case illustrated the weaknesses of legal institutions in the post-Soviet Union countries and, in particular, the failure of the rule of law in the Ukraine. The Russian opposition leader and politician Mr. Boris Nemtsov followed discussion by analyzing the example of Russia. “In Russia, we don’t have the rule of law. We have the dictatorship of law. We have the law of Putin”. He indicated that the main reason for that was people and businesses putting their safety first and concluded that Russia must reconstruct her legal system.

 

Expert group discussing the conflict of religious law and human rights brought together Mr. Michael Melchior, the politician and Chief Rabbi of Norway, Egyptian journalist Ms. Shahira Amin, Mr. Václav Malý, Titular Bishop of Marcellia and Auxilliary Bishop of Prague, and the Buddhist scholar Mr. Geshe Tenzin Dhargye. The discussion was moderated by Prince El Hassan bin Talal, the Chairman of West Asia-North Africa Forum based in Jordan. Prince El Hassan bin Talal emphasized the need for a regional bill of rights that would provide each religion with the basic rights belonging to all people. Mr. Michael Melchior formulated the common theme amongst all of the speakers, that it is through dialogue that peace will be achieved. “If God and God’s name only can be used to crush human dignity, to crush the other... then we do not need God in this world.” Václav Malý echoed the importance of addressing religion, stating that “without religious background, we cannot speak about human rights, at least in Europe”.

 

15^th Forum 2000 Conference will be concluded by the concert of Clarinet Factory at Žofín Palace, and followed by E.ON Energy Globe Award Czech Republic which will be broadcast live by the Czech Television.

 

The complete list of all panel discussions can be found here, video section here. Additional information including panel discussion reports and photo gallery will soon be available on www.forum2000.cz.