Month: March 2013
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Petition 72: The Struggle for Constitutional Reforms in Vietnam
–Bui Ngoc Son, Vietnam National University Vietnam is comprehensively revising her 1992 constitution for the second time, 12 years after the first amendment in 2001. The draft new constitution prepared by the Constitutional Amendment Committee has been released to the public for debate from January to April, 2013.
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The Ombudsman as an Institution of European Administrative Law
—Dr. Julia Haas, Attorney-at-law (Rechtsanwältin), Hamburg (Germany) The ombudsman is presumably one of the most important Scandinavian contributions to worldwide constitutional development. Its origins can be traced back to the Swedish institution of the Justitieombudsman which was introduced in the Swedish constitution of 1809.
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Why *Judicial* Review: A Preliminary Typology of Scholarly Arguments
—Richard Albert, Boston College Law School It was perhaps inevitable that the advent of written constitutionalism would quicken the rise of judicial review. The writtenness of a constitution creates a ready-made argument in favor of judicial review, namely that the constitutional text sets the standard against which the constitutionality of governmental action must be measured, and that any governmental action to the contrary is invalid.
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Greece’s Constitutional Revision Dilemmas
–Xenophon Contiades and Alkmene Fotiadou, Centre for European Constitutional Law Greece is about to revise its Constitution. The question is why now and towards which direction. The timing is connected to the prerequisites of the amending formula, which sets a mandatory time lapse between revisions, that is, revision of the Constitution is not permitted within five years of the completion of the previous one.
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Canada’s Supreme Court upholds hate speech laws
—Carissima Mathen, Associate Professor of Law, University of Ottawa A comparative discussion of North American civil liberties invariably notes that Canada has a more limited scope of protection for freedom of expression than the United States. Nowhere is this more evident that the treatment of hateful expression.
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The Lord Cooke Project
–Joel Colon-Rios, Victoria University of Wellington, Faculty of Law The Right Honourable Lord Cooke of Thorndon (1926–2006) is widely regarded as one of the greatest New Zealand judges. He made a monumental contribution to many areas of law across more than five decades of writing, advocacy, and judging.
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Zimbabwe’s New Constitution
—Richard Albert, Boston College Law School Zimbabweans will vote to approve a new constitution on Saturday. Drafting a new constitution was a condition of the 2008 coalition formed between political rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The draft constitution is the product of a 25-member committee on which all three political parties are represented.
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Creating a Constitutional Process Design for Libya via Constitutional Amendment
—Lorianne Updike Toler, The Constitutional Sources Project & Lorianne Updike Toler Consulting. The feared unrest in Libya prior to 15 February and now the confusion introduced by the Libyan Supreme Court’s decision last Tuesday to invalidate Amendment No. 3 of Libya’s Constitutional Declaration can all be attributed to the poor constitutional design of the Declaration and particularly of Amendment No.
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In Memory – Professor Ronald Dworkin (11 December 1931-14 February 2013)
I was fortunate to study with giants who are no longer in the physical realm: Isaiah Berlin, Jerry Cohen, Wilfrid Knapp, Geoffrey Marshall and Jack Pole. I mourned their death when they passed away. I still mourn their death as they are very much alive in my memory and soul.