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Dr. Fiala-Butora was invited as an expert to the hearing of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on 18 March 2026 to present and answer questions on the topic of: “Rule of law and fundamental rights risks arising from the amendment to the Slovak Criminal Code in relation to the continued application of post-war legislation based on the principle of collective responsibility (the Beneš Decrees)”

The issue relates to his research on the current application of collective guilt in Slovakia, published in the European Journal of Minority Studies, and on the recent amendment of the Slovak Criminal Code, which sanctions by 6-month imprisonment the criticism of these practices.

Janos is directly affected by this law - criminal proceedings are ongoing against him for a petition he initiated calling on for human rights to be upheld and the confiscations to be stopped (see here).

At the hearing, he presented a University of Galway policy brief ‘Property Confiscations based on the principle of collective guilt’, and answered the questions from the Committee. Members of committee were in support of the argument that the confiscations breach EU Law, and called on the European Commission to investigate these issues and take action against Slovakia. 

A recording of the proceedings can be viewed here.

Dr. János Fiala-Butora is a Lecturer in Intellectual Disability Law at the School of Law, and a member of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy and Crime, Punishment and Rights Research Cluster.