Jurij Toplak

Jurij Toplak (born 1977) is a constitutional scholar, election law, and disability law expert. He is a professor of law at the University of Maribor[1] and a visiting professor at the Fordham University School of Law in New York.[2] The Guardian, Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe published his legal comments.[3][4][5][6] He serves as the co-chair of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) Freedom of Expression research group. Toplak is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.[7]

Jurij Toplak and Harvard University students in 2017 discussing the Cuban revolution

Toplak received an LL.M. degree at Central European University in Budapest under the mentorship of Michel Rosenfeld and Andras Sajó. His doctoral dissertation supervisor was Daniel H. Lowenstein.

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.[8] 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.[9] In 2006 he published (together with Klemen Jaklic, then a lecturer at Harvard), the first translation of United States Constitution in Slovenian language. Together with Daniel Smilov, he co-edited a book Political Finance and Political Corruption in Eastern Europe (Ashgate, 2007). 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.[10] He classified preferential voting electoral systems.[11] Pippa Norris and Bernard Grofman are among those who referred to his works,[12][13][14] and he is among the top ten most cited Slovenian legal scholars.[15] He is currently a member of the Ombudsman's Human Rights Council[16] and of the government's Commission for Equal Chances in Science.[17]

As a consultant to governments or international organisations OSCE, European Union, Council of Europe, Greco, and UNDP he worked in Uganda,[18] Canada, United States, France, Finland, Latvia, Monaco, Serbia,[19][20] Montenegro,[21] Malta, Ukraine,[22] Romania and elsewhere.[23]

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. 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.[24] 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.[25][26] In 2014, after two years of litigation for access to information, he obtained statistical data on schools and published it,[27][28] which triggered a heated public debate.[29][30] Toplak had long publicly opposed punishing of Internet users who discussed election candidates during the electoral silence.[31] In 2011, he wrote two successful appeals for such Facebook users.[32] 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.[33] 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.[34] 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.[35] 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.[36] In 2019, the Constitutional Court invalidated the local music quota law based on the appeal written by Toplak.[37]

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.[38] On the same day Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned.[39] 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.”[40] Slovenian lawyers voted Jurij Toplak among 'Ten most influential lawyers in Slovenia' in 2018[41] and 2019.[42]

In January 2020, the European Court of Human Rights communicated with the Slovenian government the case Toplak and others against Slovenia.[43] The case concerns accessibility of polling places and voting. Jurij Toplak wrote the appeal for the appealant Franc Toplak, his uncle, and for other voters with disabilities.[44] 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.[44]

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,[45][46] and shortly after that Gestapo arrested, tortured,[47] and then killed his brother Franc Toplak, a university student of agriculture.[48][49] The Toplak family in Mostje near Juršinci dates back to 1610.[50][51] Jurij's maternal grandfather was Edvard Sitar, an inventor,[52] a founder and administrator of several schools,[53] a songwriter, and a partizan poet,[54] tortured and imprisoned by Italian fascists.[55][56]

References
  1. "Faculty of Law Maribor – Jurij Toplak". www.pf.um.si (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  2. "Class Schedules - Course Details". web.v2.go.lawnet.fordham.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
  3. Toplak, Jurij. "Key problem with remote vote: It cannot ensure a secret ballot" (PDF).
  4. May 11, Jurij; Toplak. "Push for mail-in vote gaining steam, and scrutiny - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  5. Ronay, Barney (2020-03-05). "Michel Platini's appeal over ban rejected by European court of human rights". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  6. Hirtenstein, Anna (2021-01-11). "Online Platform eToro Called in Leveraged Crypto Trades When Bitcoin Price Peaked". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-01-12.
  7. Toplak, Jurij. "Members Database". European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  8. "Board Members (2017) – RC20 – Political Finance and Political Corruption". rc20.ipsa.org. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  9. "STA: Začeli so se Dnevi slovenskih pravnikov 2000". www.sta.si (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  10. "Raziskava o diskriminaciji: V Ljubljani in Mariboru slepemu niso odgovorili". Dnevnik. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  11. Toplak, Jurij (2017-10-25). "Preferential Voting: Definition and Classification". Lex Localis – Journal of Local Self-Government. 15 (4): 737–761. doi:10.4335/15.4.737-761(2017). ISSN 1581-5374.
  12. 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. doi:10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2016.11.004. ISSN 0165-4896.
  13. "Pippa Norris on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
  14. 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. doi:10.1080/10361146.2014.900530. ISSN 1036-1146.
  15. "V tujini priznane in prezrte slovenske pravne avtoritete". Spletni časopis (in Slovenian). 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
  16. "Decision of the Apointment of Members of the Ombudsman's Human Rights Council" (PDF).
  17. "Komisija za enake možnosti na področju znanosti | GOV.SI". Portal GOV.SI (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  18. EU EOM (2016-01-25), NTV – Jurij Toplak, EU Election Observation Mission, interviewed on the role of money in politics, retrieved 2018-06-09
  19. "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. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  20. Minic, Zlatko. "Useful recommendations for the improvement of legislation on party financing". www.transparentnost.org.rs. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  21. "Magnus Ohman :: News 2014". www.magnusohman.net. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  22. "OSCE and EU conduct conference to discuss legal aspects of election campaign funding in Ukraine | OSCE". www.osce.org. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  23. "Predsednik Republike Slovenije | Javna predstavitev kandidata za člana Stalnega arbitražnega sodišča s sedežem v Haagu prof. dr. Jurija Toplaka". www2.gov.si. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  24. "Decision U-I-25/10" (PDF). Constitutional Court of Slovenia. 11 September 2010.
  25. "Decision U-I-156/11". Constitutional Court of Slovenia. 10 April 2014.
  26. politika, Peter Jančič, notranja. "Država mora invalidom zagotoviti dostop do volišč" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  27. "Lestvica šol: Srednje šole – Alma Mater Europaea". www.almamater.si. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  28. "Lestvica šol: Osnovne šole – Alma Mater Europaea". www.almamater.si. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  29. "Ministrstvo: Za lestvico šol najbolje, da utone v pozabo" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  30. Delo.si, Marko Crnkovič. "Uši socialnega snobizma in politične korektnosti" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  31. "Je Facebook všečkanje (Like) kršenje volilnega molka?". Marko Pigac – spletna domačija. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  32. "Precedenčna sodba za svobodo izražanja". Dnevnik. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  33. "Supreme Court on Election Blackouts: Every Comment is Not Propaganda". RTVSLO. 26 September 2016.
  34. "Ustavno sodišče ponovilo argumente in mnenje, ki ga je dr. Toplak glede neustavnega odvzema Janševega mandata podal za Politikis.si | Politikis". www.politikis.si (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-06-13.
  35. ""Dvojna" kandidatka: Vrhovno sodišče pritrdilo Čušu in Toplaku". Časnik Večer d.o.o. (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-06-13.
  36. "Constitutional Court of Slovenia decision U-I-32/15". odlocitve.us-rs.si. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  37. "J. Toplak: Ne gremo na kolena. Če bo politika še enkrat poskusila s kvotami slovenske glasbe, bo za 300 mio tožb". Finance.si (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  38. Editorial, Reuters. "Slovenian court orders a new referendum on railway". U.S. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  39. "Slovenia's Prime Minister resigns over court ruling on referendum". The Telegraph. 15 March 2018.
  40. "Transcript of the resignation and of '24ur zvečer' on POP TV". Media Clipping Map. 14 March 2018.
  41. "To so najvplivnejši slovenski pravniki" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  42. "Znanih 10 najvplivnejših pravnikov leta 2019". Dnevnik. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  43. "HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights". hudoc.echr.coe.int. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  44. "STA: Disabled take Slovenia to Human Rights Court over polling stations accessibility". english.sta.si. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  45. "Partizanski koledar našega okoliša, 28. del: Nove aretacije avgusta 1941". Tednik. 14 Aug 1064.
  46. "Za klicem "Smrt fažizmu - svoboda narodu!" v Slovenskih goricah pred 30 leti: Ustanovitev OF". Tednik. 23 July 1971.
  47. Šuligoj, Ljubica (2001). "Leto 1941 na Ptuju: The Year 1941 in Ptuj". Kronika.
  48. Glušič, Dominik (26 Sep 1974). "Spomini na ptujske zapore". Tednik.
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  50. "ILIRIJA - Geneanet". gw.geneanet.org. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  51. "Family Tree".
  52. "Razboj za tkanje Siga - video dailymotion". Dailymotion. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
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  54. Stanonik, Marija (1973). Slovensko pesništvo upora: Slovensko narodnoosvobodilno pesništvo 1941-1945 na Gorenjskem. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta.
  55. Tribunale militare di guerra, fasc. 542-2321.
  56. Bravničar (ed.), Dušan (1960). Prispevki za zgodovino delavskega gibanja (PDF). Ljubljana: Inštitut za zgodovino delavskega gibanja. p. 243.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
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