—Andrew Harding and Dian AH Shah, National University Singapore Faculty of Law Beginning in early 2020 Malaysia has experienced an extraordinary period of political instability that has tested many constitutional norms to the limit and perhaps beyond the limit. Aspects of this instability have been discussed by us in this blog previously.[1] On this occasion
Old Wine in a New Bottle? A Response to Bruce Ackerman on Presidentialism in Brazil
—Luiz Guilherme Arcaro Conci, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo; João Vitor Cardoso, University of Chile; Estefânia Maria de Queiroz Barboza, Federal University of Paraná; Glauco Salomão Leite Correio, Federal University of Paraíba; and João Paulo Allain Teixeira, Federal University of Pernambuco In his analysis on the backsliding of Brazilian democracy, Professor Bruce Ackerman not only
Why Replacing the Brazilian Constitution Is Not a Good Idea: A Response to Professor Bruce Ackerman
—Thomas da Rosa Bustamante, Emilio Peluso Neder Meyer, Marcelo Andrade Cattoni de Oliveira, Federal University of Minas Gerais; Jane Reis Gonçalves Pereira, Rio de Janeiro State University; Juliano Zaiden Benvindo and Cristiano Paixão, University of Brasília In a provocative piece that was first published in Portuguese and then in an English version on ICONnect, Professor
Constitutional Chaos in Sri Lanka: Constitutional Retrogression or Working Out of its Constitutional Salvation?
—Jaclyn L. Neo, National University of Singapore Faculty of Law [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. Columns, while scholarly in accordance with the tone of the blog and about the same length as a normal blog post, are a bit more “op-ed” in nature than standard posts. For more information about
The Oldest-Newest Separation of Powers
—Yaniv Roznai, Senior Lecturer, Radzyner Law School, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. Separation of powers is a basic idea within constitutional theory. The principle of separation of powers, as famously described by Montesquieu in his The Spirit of the Laws, centered around three governmental branches: legislative power, executive power and judging power; a separation that was needed
Three Key Constitutional Reforms for Sri Lanka
–Ashwini Vasanthakumar (University College, Oxford) and Rehan Abeyratne (Jindal Global Law School) On January 8, 2015, Sri Lanka elected Maithripala Sirisena as its new President. Sirisena was an unlikely victor. He was Minister of Health and General Secretary of President Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) until November 2014 when he was chosen to be the
Video Interview: Courts and Constitution-Making Featuring Will Partlett
—Richard Albert, Boston College Law School In this installment of our new video interview series at I-CONnect, I interview Will Partlett on the role of courts in constitution-making. In the interview, we discuss constitution-making in general, his recent work on constitution-making in Russia and post-communist countries, as well as the relationship between political culture and constitutional structure. We
Egypt: What’s Next?
—Mohamed Abdelaal, Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Alexandria University, School of Law Was the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi on June 30 a popular revolution or a military coup? The debate is outdated. What is more important is that the events of June 30 returned Egypt to square one, right back where it
