—Renáta Uitz, Central European University [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 our four columnists for 2018,
Book Review: Andrew Roberts on Anna Fruhstorfer and Michael Hein’s “Constitutional Politics in Central and Eastern Europe: From Post-Socialist Transition to the Reform of Political Systems”
[Editor’s Note: In this installment of I•CONnect’s Book Review Series, Andrew Roberts reviews Anna Fruhstorfer and Michael Hein’s book on Constitutional Politics in Central and Eastern Europe: From Post-Socialist Transition to the Reform of Political Systems (Springer 2016)] —Andrew Roberts, Northwestern University The fall of communism gave rise to a wave of theorizing about constitutionalism. Western experts
Book Review: Bogdan Iancu on Bianca Selejan-Guțan’s “The Constitution of Romania: A Contextual Analysis”
[Editor’s Note: In this installment of I•CONnect’s Book Review Series, Bogdan Iancu reviews Bianca Selejan-Guțan’s book on The Constitution of Romania: A Contextual Analysis.] Contextualizing Romania’s Fragmented Constitutionalism —Bogdan Iancu, Associate Professor (Comparative Constitutional Law and Constitutional Theory), University of Bucharest, Faculty of Political Science For a long time after the collapse of state socialism, the countries that had
A New Revolution? The Recent Governmental Crisis in Romania
—Bianca Selejan-Gutan, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania As of November 2015, Romania faces its most important social, political and constitutional crisis in the last quarter-century. If the 1989 Revolution signified a break with a totalitarian communist regime, the widespread street protests of 2015, which led to the fall of the Government, gave a new
The Constitutional Politics of Cohabitation in Romania
—Zoltán Pozsár-Szentmiklósy, ELTE University, Budapest Klaus Iohannis, Romania’s new president, faces a challenging situation right at the beginning of his term: after a harsh campaign, his rival candidate for the presidency, Victor Ponta, remains prime minister and enjoys the support of a significant parliamentary majority. Though they have different powers, the president and the prime minister are both in
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. One year after these events, the constitutional amendment process, initiated by the Parliament in
Romanian Elections: An “Original” Democracy?
–Bianca Selejan-Guţan, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Simion Bărnuţiu Faculty of Law The long-awaited process in which Romanians were called to elect their representatives in the country’s Parliament came to an end last month. The Central Electoral Office announced the final results. However, some of the most controversial issues related to these elections have just begun to
The Illusion of the Romanian Constitution?
—Bianca Selejan-Guţan, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Simion Bărnuţiu Faculty of Law On July 29th, 2012, over 8 million Romanian citizens (i.e. over 46% of the electoral records) voted in the referendum organized for the dismissal of the President. More than 87% voted in favor of the dismissal. On August 29th, 2012, some Western powers expressed their satisfaction
