Social Research Center publishes proceedings of int’l conference dedicated to “2025: The Year of Constitution and Sovereignty”

Under the Presidential Decree of 11 February 2025, which approved the Action Plan for declaring 2025 the “Year of the Constitution and Sovereignty” in Azerbaijan, the Social Research Center (SRC) was assigned a set of responsibilities under Clause 10. These include organizing scientific and practical conferences with the participation of local and international experts on issues related to safeguarding state sovereignty, as well as preparing and publishing collections of papers, academic works, and books.

 Co-organized by the Social Research Center (Azerbaijan) and the Faculty of Law at Istanbul University (Türkiye), an international scientific-practical conference titled “State Sovereignty and National Constitutions in the 21st Century: Global Challenges, Trends, and Prospects” was held on 5 November 2025 as part of the “2025: The Year of Constitution and Sovereignty.” A 730-page proceedings volume, containing the papers and abstracts submitted for the event, was prepared and made available to authors, participants, and readers.

The materials of this international conference—dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Constitution and the 5th anniversary of the Victory—feature papers and abstracts from contributors representing 19 countries, including Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Germany, France, China, Japan, Hungary, Poland, Qatar, Georgia, Pakistan, Canada, Ukraine, Romania, Tajikistan, and others. The volume brings together analyses by scholars and experts working across fields such as law, political science, sociology, cultural studies, and related disciplines.

 The conference also brought together prominent domestic experts and scholars in constitutional law, members of the Milli Majlis (Parliament) Committee on Legal Policy and State Building, faculty from relevant university departments, and doctoral researchers.

 The international conference was co-chaired by Zahid Oruj (Azerbaijan), Chairperson of the Board of the Social Research Center and Chair of the Milli Majlis Committee on Human Rights, and Professor Fethi Gedikli (Türkiye), Dean of the Faculty of Law at Istanbul University.

 Nearly 200 papers and abstracts were submitted from across different countries. Of these, 152 met the required criteria and were approved for publication by the Conference’s Academic Committee. Eighty-six of the accepted works were authored by international contributors, and sixty-six by local researchers.

The conference materials were organized into a plenary session and three thematic panel sessions: “Constitutionalism and Global Change in the Modern World,” “National Statehood and Constitutional Stability: Azerbaijani and International Experience,” and “Human Rights, Sovereignty, and Social Challenges in the Digital Era: New Legal and Socioeconomic Dimensions.” The plenary section features 18 papers and abstracts; the first panel includes 36; the second, 51; and the third, 47.

The volume explores a wide range of themes, including the main trends shaping contemporary constitutionalism; global uncertainty and the challenges it poses to state sovereignty; comparative legal analyses of constitutional reforms in different countries; the evolution of constitutional norms within the emerging “new world order”; and assessments of current reform trends together with perspectives on their future trajectory.

It also examines national and universal dimensions of constitutional law—from traditional approaches to postmodern interpretations; the constitutional experience of Turkic states over the past three decades and prospects ahead; constitutionalism as a legal foundation for sovereignty and stability; and the imperatives for adopting environmental and climate-related constitutional provisions, viewed through differing expert positions.

Further topics include modern debates on constitutional citizenship and national identity; principles of civil society in constitutional theory; the 30th anniversary of the Constitution as a point of reflection on traditional and constitutional values; the contributions of National Leader Heydar Aliyev to the constitutional development of independent Azerbaijan; the restoration of full sovereignty affirmed in the Constitution in the aftermath of the Karabakh Victory; constitutional norms as safeguards of national interests and sovereignty; the relationship between the digital revolution, information flows, and state sovereignty; legal regulation of digital transformation through international standards and national approaches; fourth-generation human rights in the age of artificial intelligence and digital technologies; and the shift from state sovereignty to information sovereignty.

Authors who participated in the international conference, as well as other interested readers, can access and explore the full collection of papers and abstracts via the following link:

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