—Dian A H Shah, National University of Singapore Faculty of Law The old Malay proverb “terlepas dari mulut buaya, masuk ke mulut harimau” (literally translated as “out of the crocodile’s mouth, into the tiger’s mouth”) seems to be an apt description for Malaysia in the new year. The government, having just re-implemented stricter restrictions in
Acting (or Not Acting) on (Lawful or Unlawful) Advice in Malaysia: From Windsor to Kuantan and Back Again
—Andrew Harding, Centre for Asian Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore As has been previously noted in this blog, Malaysia has been undergoing an unprecedented period of political instability that has tested the interpretation and implementation of many constitutional provisions, especially those relating to the appointment and dismissal of governments.[1] In this
Election Anxiety: The Other Global Pandemic
—Andrea Scoseria Katz, Washington University in St. Louis, School of Law [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] On Monday, three days before Thursday’s televised encounter between U.S. presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential
ICON Editorial – A Modest Proposal on Zoom Teaching
—J.H.H. Weiler, NYU School of Law; Co-Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Constitutional Law (ICON) No preliminaries are necessary here. One result of Covid-19 has been a shift to online teaching by Zoom (or similar platforms). In some law faculties all teaching is online. In most faculties most teaching is online with some hybrid teaching, and in
Compulsory Vaccination in Brazil: Anticipating the COVID-19 Vaccine Struggles
—Bruno Santos Cunha, City Attorney, Recife, Brazil In the last week of August 2020, the Brazilian Supreme Court had a peculiar case on its docket: the State of São Paulo was suing the parents of a 5 year-old child in order to compel them to regularize their child’s vaccination according to the mandatory vaccine calendar
Going It Alone: The Constitutionality, Feasibility, and Ulterior Motivation of Donald Trump’s COVID-19 Relief Orders
—Andrea Scoseria Katz, Washington University in St. Louis, School of Law [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 has been a big week for the power of the pen. Last week, just after imposing sanctions on Chinese media giants
ICON Volume 18, Issue 2: Editorial
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
