Jurij Toplak Explained

Jurij Toplak (born 1977) is a constitutional scholar, university administrator, election law, and human rights expert. He is professor at University of Maribor[1] and the head of the Cultural Formations research group at the Alma Mater Europaea University,[2] and recurring visiting professor at the Fordham University School of Law in New York.[3] Since 2016, he has served as the provost and vice-president of the Alma Mater Europaea university. The Washington Post,[4] The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe published his legal comments.[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] Toplak is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts[12] and serves as the co-chair of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) Freedom of Expression research group.

Education

Toplak received an LL.M. degree at Central European University in Budapest under the mentorship of Michel Rosenfeld and Andras Sajó.[13] He served as a Fulbright Scholar at the UCLA Law School in 2003–2004, and his doctoral dissertation supervisor was Daniel H. Lowenstein.[14]

Professional career

He was a member of the National Election Commission of Slovenia from 2000 until 2012. Since 2006, he has been a board member, and he is a vice-chair of International Political Science Association Political Finance and Political Corruption Research Committee.[15] At the age of 23 he published his first book on redistricting, for which Slovenian Lawyers’ Association awarded him with a “Young Lawyer of the Year” award.[16] In 2006 he published (together with Klemen Jaklic, then a lecturer at Harvard), the first translation of United States Constitution into Slovene. Together with Daniel Smilov, he co-edited a book Political Finance and Political Corruption in Eastern Europe (Ashgate, 2008). In 2011, he led a research on disability discrimination, which evaluated responsiveness of over 200 municipalities to freedom of information requests submitted by blind persons.[17] He classified preferential voting electoral systems.[18] Pippa Norris and Bernard Grofman are among those who referred to his works,[19] [20] [21] and he is among the top ten most cited Slovenian legal scholars.[22] He was a member of the Ombudsman's Human Rights Council[23] and of the government's Commission for Equal Chances in Science.[24]

As a consultant to governments or international organisations OSCE, European Union, Council of Europe, Greco, and UNDP he worked in Uganda, Canada, United States, France, Finland, Latvia, Monaco, Serbia,[25] [26] Montenegro,[27] Malta, Ukraine,[28] Romania and elsewhere.[29]

In 2022, with David Schultz, Toplak co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Election Law.[30] He is considered "one of the world's leading election law experts."[31] [32] [33]

Notable cases

Jure Toplak led numerous successful impact litigation projects and wrote complaints and appeals to Slovenian Supreme Court and Constitutional Court, which improved human rights protection of disabled persons, candidates and voters. He is known to side with the underdog and defend victims and weaker parties in disputes,[34] and is the most successful author of human rights appeals in Slovenia.[35] [36] [37]

Based on the constitutional appeal he wrote for a group of paraplegics, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2010 that “as many as possible” polling stations need to be wheelchair accessible.[38] Next year he wrote another appeal for three wheelchair users, and in 2014 the Constitutional Court annulled part of the election law and ruled that all polling stations must be accessible for persons with disabilities.[39] [40]

In 2015, when the Constitutional Court was deciding whether the parliamentary seat of a parliamentarian due to his conviction was constitutional or not, the court copied arguments from Toplak's Amicus Curiae brief.[41] During the 2018 parliamentary election, he helped a Green Party candidate list rejected by the election commissions and the Supreme Court returned it on the ballot.[42]

When the Constitutional Court invalidated election districts legislation in 2018, Toplak is mentioned or cited 17 times in the court's decision and judges' opinions.[43] In 2019, the Constitutional Court invalidated the local music quota law based on the appeal written by Toplak.[44]

In 2017, Jurij Toplak wrote a challenge to the referendum results for a voter and activist Vili Kovačič, which led to the first-ever public hearing by the Supreme Court of Slovenia and first-ever annulment of referendum results on 14 March 2018.[45] On the same day Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned.[46] A minute later, a leading television program Pop TV, which broadcast the resignation, referred to Jurij Toplak as “the silent winner of the court ruling.”[47] In 2022 the Slovenian Lawyers’ Aasociation, which unites 29 legal associations, named him “The Lawyer of the Year.”[48] Slovenian lawyers voted Jurij Toplak among 'Ten most influential lawyers in Slovenia' in 2018,[49] 2019,[50] 2020,[51] and 2021.[52]

In October 2021, the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment Toplak and Mrak against Slovenia.[53] [54] The case concerned accessibility of polling places and voting. Jurij Toplak wrote the appeal for Franc Toplak, his uncle, and other voters with disabilities,[55] and the Court ruled that Slovenia had violated his uncle's and other applicants' human rights.[56] Toplak wrote a class action for the Slovenian Disability Rights Association, which asked for a review and reform of the polling places accessibility, and for a 54 million Euros of compensation for the past discrimination of persons with disabilities.

Toplak is a staunch defender of free speech and transparent government. In 2014, after two years of litigation for access to information, he obtained statistical data on schools and published it,[57] [58] which triggered a heated public debate.[59] [60]

Toplak had long publicly opposed punishing of Internet users who discussed election candidates during the electoral silence.[61] In 2011, he wrote two successful appeals for such Facebook users.[62] After the 2014 elections, he wrote an appeal to the Supreme Court for a voter, who was fined 100 euros for publishing a comment on Facebook on a day before elections. In September 2016, the Supreme Court dismissed the fine and ruled that comments and discussions are not within a definition of illegal propaganda.[63]

In March 2021, Toplak disclosed in the Daily Express that the European Court of Human Rights had stopped sharing its files with the public.[64] “After allowing access to its single-judge decisions for decades and after sending applications out for several months, the Court’s termination of access in March 2021 due to the pandemic seems unjustified. The pandemic has not worsened in March 2021," he said. Just few hours after the Daily Express published the article, the Court changed its practice and sent documents to those who requested them.[65] [66]

Toplak wrote an appeal for an activist Vili Kovačič who was convicted for calling the judge “a pig” in the courtroom after the judge convicted Milko Novič to 25 years for murder. In a re-trial, Novič was found not guilty, and based on the appeal written by Toplak, the Supreme Court in 2022 dropped the fine imposed on Kovačič. They argued that freedom of expression protects those who call “a pig” an unfair and abusive judge who wrongly convicts a person of murder without evidence, and claimed that “pig” is a common description of abusive rulers, including in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.[67]

Soon after the 2022 national elections, the National Election Commission of Slovenia published names of the elected parliament members. Two weeks later, it announced that six seats have been wrongly assigned due to a "computer defect." The National Election Commission's president explained that it was impossible to calculate all 88 seats correctly, because a manual calculation would take "months of work for hundreds of people."[68] [69] The next day, Toplak on YouTube published a video in which he with a simple calculator and a pen calculated all 88 seats correctly in less than three hours.[70] [71]

European Academy of Sciences and Arts

Together with the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Toplak and his father Ludvik Toplak developed the international Alma Mater Europaea university. Jurij Toplak served as the Dean of Business Studies between 2012 and 2016. He served as the university's provost between 2016 and 2022, and currently is the university’s vice president.

In 2020, Toplak organized and moderated the first round-the-globe and round-the-clock online conference, which soon became common during the COVID-19 pandemic.[72] The event featured 52 of the world's leading constitutional law scholars including Mark Tushnet of Harvard Law School, Oxford professor Jacob Rowbottom, Adrienne Stone, Janny Leung, Pierre de Vos, Richard Calland, Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, RonNell Andersen Jones and the ECHR judges András Sajó and Boštjan M Zupančič.[73] [74] [75]

In 2021, he took over the chairmanship of the organization of the It's About People conference. Since then, the event featured speakers economist Jeffrey Sachs, the European Commission vice-presidents and commissioners Maroš Šefčovič, Mariya Gabriel and Dubravka Šuica, Oxford Law School dean Mindy Chen-Wishart, Baroness Ruth Deech, András Sajó, Dimitry Kochenov, Klaus Mainzer, and Felix Unger.[76] [77] [78] [79] [80] [81]

Personal life

His father is a law professor, diplomat, and university rector Ludvik Toplak, who served as the president of the Slovenian parliament's chamber during Slovenia's independence, democratisation and constitution-making. His mother is attorney Rosvita Toplak. Jurij's paternal grandfather was a grapevine producer, agricultural cooperatives' organizer Janža Toplak, who in June 1941 hosted the first anti-Nazi resistance meeting in the Ptuj region,[82] [83] and shortly after that Gestapo arrested, tortured,[84] and then killed his brother Franc Toplak, a university student of agriculture.[85] [86] The Toplak family in Mostje near Juršinci dates back to 1610.[87] [88] Jurij's maternal grandfather was Edvard Sitar, an inventor,[89] a founder and administrator of several schools,[90] a songwriter, and a partizan poet,[91] tortured and imprisoned by Italian fascists.[92] [93]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Faculty of Law Maribor - Jurij Toplak . 2024-06-13 . www.pf.um.si.
  2. Web site: Jurij Toplak . 2024-06-13 . en.almamater.si . en.
  3. Web site: Class Schedules - Course Details. web.v2.go.lawnet.fordham.edu. 2019-12-29.
  4. News: Opinion Kenyans trusted the transparent election results . en-US . Washington Post . 2022-09-09 . 0190-8286.
  5. News: 2022-08-17 . Letter: Court rulings on elections bolster trust in democracy . Financial Times . 2022-08-22.
  6. Web site: Toplak. Jurij. Key problem with remote vote: It cannot ensure a secret ballot.
  7. Web site: May 11. Jurij. Toplak. Push for mail-in vote gaining steam, and scrutiny - The Boston Globe. 2020-07-14. BostonGlobe.com. en-US.
  8. News: Ronay. Barney. 2020-03-05. Michel Platini's appeal over ban rejected by European court of human rights. en-GB. The Guardian. 2020-07-14. 0261-3077.
  9. Web site: The Semenya court case analyzed by professor Toplak . 2022-05-03 . en.almamater.si . en.
  10. News: Chutel . Lynsey . Longman . Jeré . 2021-06-28 . The Clock Ticks on Caster Semenya's Olympic Career . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-05-03 . 0362-4331.
  11. News: Hirtenstein. Anna. 2021-01-11. Online Platform eToro Called in Leveraged Crypto Trades When Bitcoin Price Peaked. en-US. Wall Street Journal. 2021-01-12. 0099-9660.
  12. Web site: Toplak . Jurij . Members Database . European Academy of Sciences and Arts . 29 November 2020.
  13. Web site: Maribor. IZUM-Institut informacijskih znanosti. Protection of equal voting right principle by redistricting process rules : LL.M. long thesis :: COBISS+. 2022-02-05. plus.si.cobiss.net. sl.
  14. Book: Toplak, Jurij. Daniel . Smilov . 2016-04-22. Political Finance and Corruption in Eastern Europe. 10.4324/9781315601182. 9781315601182 .
  15. Web site: Board Members (2017) – RC20 – Political Finance and Political Corruption. rc20.ipsa.org. 13 March 2013 . 2018-06-09.
  16. Web site: STA: Začeli so se Dnevi slovenskih pravnikov 2000. www.sta.si. sl. 2018-06-09.
  17. Web site: Raziskava o diskriminaciji: V Ljubljani in Mariboru slepemu niso odgovorili. Dnevnik. 2020-01-26.
  18. Toplak. Jurij. 2017-10-25. Preferential Voting: Definition and Classification. Lex Localis – Journal of Local Self-Government. 15. 4. 737–761. 10.4335/15.4.737-761(2017). 1581-5374.
  19. Grofman. Bernard. Feld. Scott L.. Fraenkel. Jon. January 2017. Finding the Threshold of Exclusion for all single seat and multi-seat scoring rules: Illustrated by results for the Borda and Dowdall rules. Mathematical Social Sciences. 85. 52–56. 10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2016.11.004. 0165-4896.
  20. News: Pippa Norris on Twitter. Twitter. 2018-07-15.
  21. Fraenkel. Jon. Grofman. Bernard. 2014-04-03. The Borda Count and its real-world alternatives: Comparing scoring rules in Nauru and Slovenia. Australian Journal of Political Science. 49. 2. 186–205. 10.1080/10361146.2014.900530. 153325225 . 1036-1146.
  22. News: V tujini priznane in prezrte slovenske pravne avtoritete. 2017-12-01. Spletni časopis. 2018-07-15. sl-SI.
  23. Web site: Decision of the Appointment of Members of the Ombudsman's Human Rights Council.
  24. Web site: Komisija za enake možnosti na področju znanosti GOV.SI. Portal GOV.SI. sl. 2020-01-26.
  25. Web site: The Report on the Implementation of the Law on Financing of Political Activities by the Slovenian Expert Jurij Toplak – Агенција за борбу против корупције. www.acas.rs. 2018-06-09.
  26. Web site: Useful recommendations for the improvement of legislation on party financing. Minic. Zlatko. www.transparentnost.org.rs. 2018-06-09.
  27. Web site: Magnus Ohman :: News 2014. www.magnusohman.net. 2018-06-09.
  28. Web site: OSCE and EU conduct conference to discuss legal aspects of election campaign funding in Ukraine OSCE. osce.org. 2018-06-09.
  29. Web site: Predsednik Republike Slovenije Javna predstavitev kandidata za člana Stalnega arbitražnega sodišča s sedežem v Haagu prof. dr. Jurija Toplaka. www2.gov.si. 2018-06-09.
  30. Book: Routledge handbook of election law . 2022 . David A. Schultz, Jurij Toplak . 978-1-138-39336-3 . Abingdon, Oxon . 1288194909.
  31. Web site: Election law a growing area – and good for democracy, say experts. August 18, 2022 . Legal Futures.
  32. Web site: Short Thought For The Week: Because You're Worth It. August 19, 2022 . The Legal Diary .
  33. Web site: How Kenya Election Petition Will Strengthen Future Polls . August 21, 2022 . Capital FM News .
  34. Web site: Potič . Zoran . 10 September 2022 . #intervju Jurij Toplak, pravnik: Vsak državljan lahko izpodbija izid glasovanja zaradi nepravilnosti . 2022-09-12 . Dnevnik.
  35. Web site: Lahko sodnici rečemo prasica? Vrhovno sodišče je odločilo. . 2022-04-22 . www.zurnal24.si.
  36. Web site: 2019-11-06 . Sodišče pritrdilo Radiu City . 2022-04-22 . maribor24.si . sl-SI.
  37. Web site: 2022-02-08 . Nova zaušnica Strasbourga slovenskemu sodstvu, tokrat v primeru Koroški dečki . 2022-04-22 . sl-SI.
  38. Web site: Decision U-I-25/10. 11 September 2010. Constitutional Court of Slovenia.
  39. Web site: Decision U-I-156/11. 10 April 2014. Constitutional Court of Slovenia.
  40. News: Država mora invalidom zagotoviti dostop do volišč. politika. Peter Jančič, notranja. 2018-06-09. sl-si.
  41. Web site: Ustavno sodišče ponovilo argumente in mnenje, ki ga je dr. Toplak glede neustavnega odvzema Janševega mandata podal za Politikis.si Politikis. www.politikis.si. 12 June 2015 . sl-SI. 2018-06-13.
  42. News: "Dvojna" kandidatka: Vrhovno sodišče pritrdilo Čušu in Toplaku. Časnik Večer d.o.o.. 2018-06-13. sl-si.
  43. Web site: Constitutional Court of Slovenia decision U-I-32/15. odlocitve.us-rs.si. 2019-11-19.
  44. Web site: J. Toplak: Ne gremo na kolena. Če bo politika še enkrat poskusila s kvotami slovenske glasbe, bo za 300 mio tožb. Finance.si. sl-SI. 2019-11-19.
  45. News: Slovenian court orders a new referendum on railway. . Reuters. 2018-06-09.
  46. Web site: Slovenia's Prime Minister resigns over court ruling on referendum. 15 March 2018. The Telegraph.
  47. Web site: Transcript of the resignation and of '24ur zvečer' on POP TV.. 14 March 2018. Media Clipping Map.
  48. Web site: Toplak pravnik leta, Jenullu in Racetu nagrada za življenjsko delo ... . 2023-05-28 . vecer.com . sl.
  49. News: To so najvplivnejši slovenski pravniki. 2018-11-27. sl-si.
  50. Web site: Znanih 10 najvplivnejših pravnikov leta 2019. Dnevnik. 2019-11-19.
  51. Web site: 10 najvplivnejsih pravnikov. 2021-08-30. IUS-INFO. sl.
  52. Web site: Kdo so bili letos najvplivnejši pravniki in pravnice?. 2022-02-05. RTVSLO.si. sl.
  53. Web site: HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights. hudoc.echr.coe.int. 2020-01-16.
  54. Web site: ECHR ruling 'has Europe-wide implications' on disability. 2022-02-05. www.lawsociety.ie.
  55. Web site: STA: Disabled take Slovenia to Human Rights Court over polling stations accessibility. english.sta.si. 2020-01-16.
  56. Web site: Norton. Hannah. 2021-11-12. EU court ruling fails to remove obstacles for voters with disabilities. 2022-02-05. www.euractiv.com. en-GB.
  57. Web site: Lestvica šol: Srednje šole – Alma Mater Europaea . 2018-06-09 . www.almamater.si.
  58. Web site: Lestvica šol: Osnovne šole – Alma Mater Europaea . 2018-06-09 . www.almamater.si.
  59. News: Ministrstvo: Za lestvico šol najbolje, da utone v pozabo . sl . 2018-06-09.
  60. News: Delo.si . Marko Crnkovič . Uši socialnega snobizma in politične korektnosti . sl-si . 2018-06-09.
  61. News: Je Facebook všečkanje (Like) kršenje volilnega molka? . Marko Pigac – spletna domačija . 2018-06-09.
  62. News: Precedenčna sodba za svobodo izražanja . Dnevnik . 2018-06-09.
  63. Web site: 26 September 2016 . Supreme Court on Election Blackouts: Every Comment is Not Propaganda . RTVSLO.
  64. Web site: Santolo. Alessandra Scotto di. 2021-03-24. 'Extreme and illegal' European court accused of concealing documents in brazen cover-up. 2021-09-14. Express.co.uk. en.
  65. Web site: Velika zmaga Jurija Toplaka: sodišče v Strasbourgu priznalo napako. 2021-09-14. siol.net. sl.
  66. Web site: Evropsko sodišče je po opozorilih pravnika Toplaka ponovno odprlo sodne spise. 2021-09-14. RTVSLO.si. sl.
  67. Web site: Vili Kovačič sodnico pogledal v oči in ji rekel "prasica", kazni ne bo plačal . 2022-04-23 . siol.net . sl.
  68. Web site: DVK je napačno določila šest poslanskih mandatov .
  69. Web site: Računalniška napaka na DVK: narobe izračunali šest poslanskih mandatov . 7 May 2022 .
  70. Web site: VIDEO: Profesorju uspelo to, za kar bi volilna komisija potrebovala mesece .
  71. Web site: V treh urah naredil to, za kar DVK potrebuje "nekaj sto ljudi in nekaj mesecev" #video .
  72. Web site: A year of global "round-the-clock" conferences .
  73. Web site: Freedom of Speech . 2022-06-21 . iacl-aidc.org.
  74. Web site: W3bStudio . 2020-07-10 . Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard Professors at the Alma Mater Europaea Symposium . 2022-06-21 . Slovenia Times . en-US.
  75. Web site: Tuji strokovnjaki: Sporočilo o novinarkah prostitutkah in Kučanu zvodniku ni kaznivo #video . 2022-06-21 . siol.net . sl.
  76. Web site: Famed economist Jeffrey Sachs rails against Bitcoin: Highly polluting and 'almost like counterfeiting' – Fortune . 2022-06-21 . en-US.
  77. Web site: Chan . Justin . Respected Economist Jeffrey Sachs Says Bitcoin Offers 'Nothing of Social Value' . 2022-06-21 . Entrepreneur . en.
  78. Web site: Dekanja z Oxforda: Kitajci so dokaj rasistični, menijo, da belopolti ne delajo dovolj #video . 2022-06-21 . siol.net . sl.
  79. Web site: W3bStudio . 2022-03-14 . The Alma Mater's 'It's About People' conference has started . 2022-06-21 . Slovenia Times . en-US.
  80. Web site: V središču mednarodne znanstvene konference Alme Mater letos etični izzivi digitalne transformacije . 2022-06-21 . RTVSLO.si . sl.
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