Orbán and the self-asphyxiation of democracy; Publishers, academics and the battles over copyright and your rights, Part I; Festschrift? ‘That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow! That is the whole Torah; the rest is interpretation’ (from the Elder Hillel in Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a); In this issue Orbán and the
Constitutions, Science, and COVID: Does Constitutional Protection of Science and Health Predict Pandemic Outcomes?
—Alexander Hudson, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] Those of us who study constitutions (especially in a comparative approach) are bound to wonder about the extent to which constitutional law
Too Poor to Travel: The Right to Inclusive Mobility Beyond the Lockdown
—Sofia Ranchordas, University of Groningen [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] As governments throughout the world are devising strategies to ensure that their citizens can safely return to their workplaces after the initial 2020 public health lockdowns, transportation experts
An Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendment? The Strange Case of the Postponement of the 2020 Brazilian Election
—Jairo Lima, Universidade Estadual do Norte do Paraná Among the many impacts the COVID-19 epidemic has had on political and constitutional activity worldwide, the postponement or cancellation of elections has been one of the key issues. According to data from the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an institution that monitors electoral processes in the
Pandemic Rulings: Between Dialogues and Shortcuts at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
—Melina Girardi Fachin and Bruna Nowak, Universidade Federal do Paraná On May 26, 2020, the President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued the Court’s first decision concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution decided upon urgent measures regarding the already-decided Case of Vélez Loor v. Panama, and thus ordered Panama to take a
Tomorrow Knows Better: A New Inflection Point in Brazil’s Democracy?
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development Brazil is again in the spotlight, and, as has been a common narrative at least since President Jair Bolsonaro’s election in 2018, not for a good reason. News from everywhere has underlined that the country is not only under a health
On the Possible Legal and Political Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in México
—Andrea Pozas-Loyo, Legal Research Institute (IIJ), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Mexico is in the midst of a legal and political storm in which events unfold at an accelerated pace, where the prevalent perception is that of uncertainty in an increasingly polarized public arena. In what follows, I will use the concept of “critical
Early Warning Signs of Abusive Constitutionalism in Indonesia: Pandemic as Pretext
–Stefanus Hendrianto, University of San Francisco Introduction On March 31, 2020, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, issued Government Regulation in lieu of Law of the Republic of Indonesia No. 1 of 2020 on the National Finance and Financial System Stability Policy for Handling Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic and/or in Order
Constitutionalism in the Time of Corona
—Yvonne Tew, Georgetown University Law Center* [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] It’s been said that when democracy dies, it is rarely pronounced dead on the scene.[1] Often, though, we can point to a definitive time when democracy gasps
Governments of National Unity: A Potential Solution to Legitimacy Crises Caused by the Pandemic
—Alexander Hudson, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] One of the social distancing measures that some governments have considered (or indeed already implemented) to fight the Covid-19 pandemic is delaying
