Author: Tom Ginsburg
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The Politics of Tunisia’s Final Draft Constitution
–Duncan Pickard, Democracy Reporting International and Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council [cross-posted from MENASource, a project of the Rafik Hariri Center] Tunisia’s constitution-drafting process has reached another milestone: the committee coordinating the drafting of the country’s post-authoritarian constitution presented its third and final draft to the National Constituent Assembly on April…
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Is Turkey in the process of adopting a new constitution or a large scale constitutional amendment? Some questions concerning constitutional theory
–Ali Acar, PhD Student at European University Institute [ali.acar@eui.eu ] Turkey is currently undergoing a process of drafting a new constitution. The lack of legitimacy of the present, 1982, constitution, which was originated from the 1980 military coup d’état, renders adoption of a new contitution necessary in the public opinion.
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The Judicialization of Pure Politics in Brazil
–Vanice Regina Lírio do Valle, Estácio de Sá University Law School The Brazilian Constitutional Court gained visibility worldwide due to its recent ruling in the “mensalão” case – a trial involving a Congressional vote-buying scheme which ended in the conviction of many politicians associated with former President Lula, and also numerous congressmen still in the…
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Leadership Shake-Up at the Indonesian Constitutional Court
–Stefanus Hendrianto, Loyola University Chicago Just a few months before the Indonesian Constitutional Court will celebrate its tenth anniversary in August 2013, it has undergone leadership change. In November 2012, Chief Justice Mohammad Mahfud told the House of Representative that he intends to leave his job in April 2013.
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Iceland: End of the Constitutional Saga?
–Tom Ginsburg (cross-posted with Huffington Post) In late 2008 and early 2009, thousands of Icelanders took to the streets in response to the largest banking collapse in history. What followed was a constitution-making process unprecedented in its transparency and level of public participation.
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How Precedent Travels
–Sam Halabi, University of Tulsa In a recent Article forthcoming in the Notre Dame Journal of International and Comparative Law, “Constitutional Borrowing as Jurisprudential and Political Doctrine in Shri DK Basu v. State of West Bengal”, I explore one aspect of the countermajoritarian difficulty engendered by use of foreign precedent.
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Kenya’s Judiciary Passes Important Test
–James Thuo Gathii, Loyola Law School (reprinted from The Daily Nation) Only five years ago, Kenya’s Judiciary was not an option that electoral challengers dared consider. The institution was rife with corruption and ineptitude. There was no public confidence that judges could be neutral arbiters in the most important questions of the day.
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Petition 72: The Struggle for Constitutional Reforms in Vietnam
–Bui Ngoc Son, Vietnam National University Vietnam is comprehensively revising her 1992 constitution for the second time, 12 years after the first amendment in 2001. The draft new constitution prepared by the Constitutional Amendment Committee has been released to the public for debate from January to April, 2013.
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Reforming Canada’s Senate
–Michael Pal, University of Toronto While the Canadian constitutional model has proven to be an influential one,[1] the unelected federal Senate is the dirty little secret at its heart. Last week by way of the reference procedure[2] the federal government sought the Supreme Court’s guidance on the constitutionality of various options for Senate reform.
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Drafting Independence: The Catalan Declaration of Sovereignty and the Question of the Constituent Power of the People in Context
–Zoran Oklopcic, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University On January 23, 2013 the Catalan Parliament adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty and Right to Decide of the Catalan People.[1] The Declaration proclaims ‘the people of Catalonia’ to be ‘a sovereign political and legal subject’ with a ‘right to decide … their collective political future’.