Page 9 - LAPA Test

Koncewicz, Continued
The moment you allow this, you stop living your own life and start
living someone else’s. Be your own man.
Second, never accept “business as usual”. Sometimes you have to stand up and let your voice be heard, regardless what others say and think. Business as usual robs us of the courage to say “No” to comfortable routine (for the application see my interview for Gazeta Wyborcza - leading daily in the Eastern Europe - in which I speak on the importance of institutions and informal practices and rules like self-restraint, readiness to compromise, signi cance of constitutional and political culture, academic ethos and engagement in times of constitutional populism - h p://wyborcza. pl/magazyn/7,124059,22378224,tomasz-koncewicz-konstytucja-w- sadach-jest-dokumentem.html )
Third, never accept the view, “No, that can’t be done.” Indeed, cases I have been involved were too o en a testament to this comfortable narrative as people kept telling me all the time: “Leave it. It can’t be done”. I reject this philosophy and see it as a convenient excuse for doing nothing.
Fourth, never compromise when fundamentals come into play. Sooner or later shortcuts will catch up with you.
Fi h, never look the other way when injustice happens. Speak up and say your great YES. The “traitor” and “enfant terrible” etique e was only corroborated with the interview for Italian East Journal (h p://www.eastjournal.net/archives/84336) and a series of papers published in English (for example h p://verfassungsblog.de/who- are-todays-polish-traitors-of-politics-of-paranoia-and-resentment- and-missed-lessons-from-the-past/ and h p://verfassungsblog.de/ on-the-separation-of-powers-and-the-judicial-self-defence-at-times- of-unconstitutional-capture/.
I am both very proud and happy to be this year’s LAPA Fellow. I have no doubt that my time here will provide a unique opportunity to build on all of the above, add to it. It will help me nd peace of mind, strength and inspiration. Right now I am pu ing nishing touches on 4 papers that will contribute important insights to my research: First on “the politics of constitutional identity and the constitutional abuse”; second on “the Constitution of fear and hope.” Of captures and
and recaptures”; third on “Understanding politics of resentment” and nally on “the Constitutional Courts in Europe: of comities, delities, boats and a ... journey”. I am se ing my sights on the book that would crown my journey here. To stop here, though, would be only telling half the story.
I want my voice to convey a message of how important it is to keep living together despite all our di erences and searching for a common ground. I believe it is my duty as an academic to frame the debate and public discourse around values that bring us together, use “power of arguments” rather than “arguments of power”, reach out to the people, explain, listen, ask, contest, never se le for the comfortable and dominant truths. That is why my most important book to date has not been addressed to fellow academics, but rather to the citizens. The title: “Law with the human face” (h ps://www.ksiegarnia.beck. pl/12819-prawo-z-ludzka-twarza-tomasz-tadeusz-koncewicz) speaks volumes and should obviate any detailed explanation. If there is one thing that really terri es the authoritarians, it is the empowered and educated citizenry ...
It is a powerful message that keeps resonating with me, especially in
our arti cial world. Every day should be about delivering by each one of us in our own individual way on the promise of our human potential. I want to see my work and the choices I make in the process as re ecting this philosophy. So please “Tread so ly because you tread on my dreams” (W. B. Yeats, He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven) and do not brush aside these as mere idealism. Good change always starts in the hearts and minds of people. It is never given as a gi from powers that be. If all of us do our part in being a decent man day in day out, here and now, good things will indeed happen on all levels of our activities and lives, personal and professional.
So much for an enfant terrible and a traitor then ...
8