Biography
Renata Uitz is professor of law and government at Royal Holloway Law School, University of London in August 2023 and senior research fellow at Central European University’s Democracy Institute in Budapest.
Her major research interests lie in comparative constitutional law, in transition to and from constitutional democracy, the protection of individual autonomy and religious liberty. Her current work focuses on illiberal constitutional practices, the normalization of illiberal constitutionalism and the rise of illiberal Christian democracy around the world. This work covers the European Union’s rule of law crisis and its impact on European values, as well as the recalibration of fundamental human rights amidst contestation between transnational communities of practice.
As a co-PI in the multidisciplinary research network investigating the origins and iterations of illiberal constitutionalism in East Central Europe, funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung (October 2021- September 26) her work traces the emergence of illiberal Christian democracy in Europe on the heels of domestic constitutional and policy changes. In January 2025 she joined the core team of the CEU Democracy Institute in the Jean Monnet+ Network PROSPER (Project to Research Opportunities to Strengthen Prosperity and Economic Resilience in the EU), where she covers the impact of the rule of law crisis, focusing on LGBTQ+ rights.
Her most recent academic book publication is the Routledge Handbook of Illiberalism, co-edited with Andras Sajo and Stephen Holmes (Routledge 2022), while her most recent article is Recalibrating Human Rights in Europe in the European Convention on Human Rights Law Review (2026). She is a regular contributor to the Verfassungsblog and International IDEA’s Voices from the Field on constitutionnet.org on Hungarian constitutional developments.
She has been actively involved in civil society in rule of law and human rights issues, as volunteer of the legal program of Hungary’s leading LGBTQ+ organization, Háttér Society, as a board member of the Verzio International Documentary Film Festival’s foundation and as a board member of the European Implementation Network (on behalf of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee).
