Author: Tom Ginsburg
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Judicial Activism Against Austerity in Portugal
–Gonçalo de Almeida Ribeiro, Católica Global School of Law, Lisbon* [Editors’ note: below is an essay on the current situation in Portugal. We thank Professor Ribeiro for the opportunity to publish this essay in the form of an extended post on the blog.]
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Thailand Update: The Search for Perfect Paper Continues
By Andrew Harding, Rawin Leelapatana, and Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang 1. Introduction In 1932 a coup d’etat abolished the absolute monarchy of Thailand and created a constitutional monarchy, for which it is obviously necessary to have a constitution. Since then, over a period of 81 years, Thailand has had 18 constitutions, the latest being the Constitution which…
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Chile’s Constitutional Moment?
–Oya Yegen Chile is going through a “constitutional moment”. Demand for replacing the 1980 Constitution, inherited from the Pinochet regime, has not been so clearly expressed or been so central to presidential elections until the last couple of years. Now, with a presidential election due to take place this Sunday, the issue has come to…
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The First Ten Years of The Indonesian Constitutional Court: The Unexpected Insurance Role
–Stefanus Hendrianto, Santa Clara University On August 13, 2013, Indonesia celebrates the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the country’s Constitutional Court. The rise of the Indonesian Constitutional Court, indeed, has been one of the success stories of the democratization process in Indonesia.
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Nathan Brown: Quick Reactions to Egypt’s New Draft Constitution
–Nathan Brown, George Washington University A verson of the new draft Constitution has been published this morning in Egypt. Al-Shuruq says that it is still undergoing linguistic correction, and the draft as published has some gaps, so it is not clear how authoritative it is.
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Margin of Appreciation at the African Court
Our sometimes contributor Adem Kassie Abebe has a new post over at AfricLaw in which he further analyzes the recent case of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights against Tanzania, Tanganyika Law Society and The Legal and Human Rights Centre and Reverend Christopher Mtikila v.
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Review of Courts and Consociations, by Christopher McCrudden and Brendan O’Leary (OUP 2013)
—Reviewed by Tom Ginsburg In its 2009 decision in the case of Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia, the European Court of Human Rights found in favor of two applicants who challenged the provision of the Bosnian Constitution restricting certain political offices to three “constituent peoples”.
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Egypt’s new constitutional declaration: Back to square one?
–Zaid Al-Ali, International IDEA(cross-posted from www.foreignpolicy.com) On July 8, Adli Mansour, Egypt’s new interim president who until recently was a member of the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court, issued yet another “constitutional declaration.” This comes after a year of failed leadership by former President Mohamed Morsi, the historic June 30 demonstrations, the intervention by the military,…
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Egypt: Democratic Coup?
The ongoing situation in Egypt calls to mind Ozan Varol’s article in the Harvard International Law Journal on The Democratic Coup d’Etat, itself motivated in part by the 2011 coup against Mubarak. Varol’s argument in a nutshell is that, simply, that there are coups and then there are coups.
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A partial supranational solution to the problem of regressive constitutional amendments
–Adem Kessie Abebe, University of Pretoria, South Africa With the significant reduction in the number of coup d’états, one major constitutional crisis facing countries in Africa and beyond is the enactment of regressive constitutional amendments, amendments that are intended to reinforce the powers of incumbents or otherwise weaken vertical and horizontal accountability mechanisms.