Author: zelkins
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A New Test for the Romanian Constitutional Court
Kim Lane Scheppele, Princeton University The Romanian Constitutional Court has played a key role in blocking the efforts by the new government of Prime Minister Victor Ponta to bring all institutions of state under the control of his governing coalition. At the moment, the Court is under extreme pressure to certify last week’s referendum results,…
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How to Evade the Constitution: The Case of the Hungarian Constitutional Court’s Decision on the Judicial Retirement Age
Kim Lane Scheppele, Princeton University On Monday 16 July, the Hungarian Constitutional Court handed down its biggest decision of the year. It held that the sudden lowering of the retirement age for judges is unconstitutional because it gave the judges no time to prepare for the change and because it created an unclear framework in…
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Workshop on Constitutions and the Environment
Erin Daly (Widener University), writes with an announcement about the following conference, which looks intriguing: Constitutional Environmental Rights Workshop Thursday, May 31, 2012 Environmental Law Center Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, DE On Thursday, May 31, 2012, the Widener Environmental Law Center (WELC) in Wilmington, Delaware, will host a one-day scholar workshop on recent…
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Notes from Behind the Bench
Willy Forbath and John Ferejohn (visiting from NYU) are running a unique colloquium at Texas this spring. They’ve invited six of the leading justices from constitutional courts around the world to visit and share insights from their time on the bench.
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The Right to Food in Mexico
As the price of commodities has skyrocketed in recent years, a number of countries have seen citizens take to the street to let the authorities know of their displeasure at the price of their favorite grain — whether it’s rice in Asian countries, wheat in Europe, or corn in Mexico, where tortillas should accompany any…
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Valium, Floods, and Presidential Decree Power in Venezuela
You have to admire Hugo Chavez’s directness, if nothing else. Today he exercised his constitutional prerogative to request decree powers from the National Assembly, which is expected to oblige. The opposition, of course, was none too pleased at the thought of more Chavezian decrees.
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EU says Turkish reforms aren’t enough
In these pages, Ozan Varol posted a nice overview of the Turkish constitutional amendments in September. Varol had noted that the otherwise democratic reforms could potentially do some real damage to the independence of the judiciary. According to a story in Today’s Zaman, an English-language paper published in Turkey, help may be on the way.
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What would happen if the U.S. repealed the 14th amendment?
So many constitutional issues came up in the context of the 2010 U.S. election that I’m just now summoning the energy to react to them. One issue was the provocative proposal by Senators Jon Kyl and Lindsay Graham (among others) to repeal the 14th amendment, or at least that part of the amendment that grants…
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Sri Lanka and Executive Self Dealing
The Sri Lankan parliament voted on Wednesday to approve the 18th amendment to their constitution, which strikes down the 2-term limit on presidential re-election. We’ve all seen this movie before. Critics responded by characterizing the amendment as a step towards authoritarianism, since its beneficiary is the sitting president, Mahinda Rajapakse.