Month: July 2013
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Indonesian Constitutional Court Reconsiders Blasphemy Law
–Dr. Melissa Crouch, Postdoctoral Fellow, Law Faculty, National University of Singapore In 2012, a new case challenging the constitutionality of Indonesia’s Blasphemy Law was lodged with the Constitutional Court.[1] Since Indonesia’s transition to democracy, over 150 individuals from minority religious groups have been convicted of blasphemy.
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Should Egypt Drop the Presidency?
—David Landau, Florida State University College of Law Bruce Ackerman recently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times calling for Egypt to drop the institution of the presidency from its new constitutional order, and instead to use a parliamentary system with a constructive vote of no confidence.
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Of Generals, Judges, and Constitutional Democracies
—Menaka Guruswamy, International Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Columbia University (Fall 2013) Cross-posted from the Blog of the UK Constitutional Law Group On July 3, General Fattah al-Sisi, the 58 year old Chief of the Egyptian Army announced on television that the army had removed President Mohammad Morsi from power and suspended the constitution.
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How the financial crisis has affected constitutions
–Dr. Alkmene Fotiadou, Centre for European Constitutional Law (Athens, Greece) In the comparative chapter of the book Constitutions in the Global Financial Crisis by Xenophon Contiades (ed.), we attempted to trace how the financial crisis impacted formal and informal constitutional change based on data and analysis provided in the book by constitutional scholars from Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain the UK and the USA.
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The Spanish Constitutional Tribunal’s Same-Sex Marriage Decision
—Christina M. Akrivopoulou, Adjunct Lecturer, Democritus University of Thrace The Spanish Constitutional Court, in judgment 198/2012 of November 28, 2012, upheld Law 13/2005, which guarantees same-sex marriage in Spain. Prior to the democratic transition that followed the death of Franco and the end of his dictatorship, Spain was characterized by a very religious and conservative perception of the institution of marriage.
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The Constitutionalism Debate in China
—Rogier Creemers, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies & St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford Cross-posted from the Blog of the UK Constitutional Law Group Over the past few months, a heated debate about the role of the Constitution in Chinese political life has emerged.
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One Year After: How the Romanian Constitutional Court Changed its Mind
–Bianca Selejan-Guţan, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Simion Bărnuţiu Faculty of Law July 2012 was the scene of the most important constitutional crisis in Romania since December 1989. I explored some salient aspects of the crisis in an earlier post on this blog.
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Egypt’s new constitutional declaration: Back to square one?
–Zaid Al-Ali, International IDEA(cross-posted from www.foreignpolicy.com) On July 8, Adli Mansour, Egypt’s new interim president who until recently was a member of the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court, issued yet another “constitutional declaration.” This comes after a year of failed leadership by former President Mohamed Morsi, the historic June 30 demonstrations, the intervention by the military, the ultimate dethroning of the President and the ensuring violence, much of which have left Egypt deeply polarized.
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Facing l’etat d’exception: The Greek Crisis Jurisprudence
—Christina M. Akrivopoulou, Adjunct Lecturer, Democritus University of Thrace Greek courts have only recently attempted to control the Memoranda entered into between the Greek state and the European Union and IMF, which impose austerity measures on the country. This judicial self-restraint has mainly been due to the extreme severity of the financial crisis.
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Constitutional Writs as “Weapons” in Myanmar?
—Dr. Melissa Crouch, Postdoctoral Fellow, Law Faculty, National University of Singapore In 2011, Myanmar began its transition to democracy under a civilian-military led government. The process has taken place within the framework of the 2008 Constitution and it has been followed by a range of legal and institutional reforms.