—J.H.H. Weiler, Co-Editor in Chief, ICON, and Wojciech Sadurski, University of Sydney One of the more ‘elegant’ ways of restricting freedom of political speech and academic freedom is to use libel and defamation laws. It has increasingly become the weapon of choice of various political actors and regimes. Nobody would gainsay that academics may libel
The Rule of Law and the Judicial Retirement Age in Poland: Is the ECJ Judgment the End of the Story?
—Matteo Mastracci, Koç University On June 24, 2019, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice delivered its long hoped for judgment over the retirement age dispute introduced by the Polish legislator through the so-called “Law on the Supreme Court.” Following the passage of this law, all sitting judges were forced to retire early
Can International Organisations Help to Stem Democratic Decay? (I-CONnect Column)
—Tom Gerald Daly, Fellow, Melbourne Law School; Associate Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional 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
When is a Limp More than a Limp? Diagnosing Democratic Decay
—Tom Gerald Daly, Fellow, Melbourne Law School; Associate Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law Sometimes a limp is just a limp–arising from a debilitating yet isolated injury or infection that will soon heal. However, sometimes a limp can be indicative of a degenerative disease such as multiple sclerosis. Gaining a clear diagnosis and prognosis of
Be Careful What You Wish For – A Short Comment on “Mandatory Voting as a Tool to Combat the New Populism”
–Ursus Eijkelenberg, International Institute for the Sociology of Law In a recent piece on ICONnect, the question was raised whether mandatory voting could be a potential “silver bullet” to dethrone autocratic populists. According to the authors, “new populist forces would face electoral defeat if the large number of generally disillusioned but politically fatigued and inactive voters
Mandatory Voting as a Tool to Combat the “New Populism”
—András László Pap, Research Chair, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre for Social Sciences Institute for Legal Studies; SASPRO-Marie-Curie Fellow, Slovak Academy of Sciences Institute for Sociology; Recurrent Visiting (Adjunct) Professor, Central European University; Professor, National University of Public Service, Budapest, and Anna Śledzińska-Simon, Assistant Professor, University of Wrocław The Hungarian and Polish experience of constitutional capture
Of the Politics of Resentment and European Disintegration: Are the European Peoples Ready to Keep Paddling Together? Part I
—Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz, Professor of Law and Director of the Department of European and Comparative Law at the University of Gdańsk, Poland* The Politics of Resentment. What is in a Name? It is trite to say that today “resentment” sweeps across Europe. Yet beyond this sweeping statement, the concept itself, its consequences and modus operandi, are
Attacks on Courts: Taking Wider Lessons from Recent Irish Supreme Court Revelations
—Tom Gerald Daly, Associate Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law The past week has seen the launch of an unprecedented book detailing the inner workings of the Supreme Court of Ireland, which provides potentially useful general insights into how courts deal with political attacks.[1] The new book, by a leading journalist, Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, has laid
The Democratic Recession and the “New” Public Law: Toward Systematic Analysis
—Tom Gerald Daly, Associate Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law 2016 thus far has been marked by democratic backsliding and constitutional crises worldwide: European Commission ‘rule of law’ investigations into Polish laws on the Constitutional Tribunal and media;[1] Turkish President Erdoğan’s insistence that he will not comply with decisions of the Constitutional Court or the
