Blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law

Category: Right to Rebel

  • Pussy Riot: when “disproportionate” is inappropriate

    Shortly after a Moscow court sentenced the three female rock musicians from Pussy Riot to two years in a penal colony for ‘hooliganism,’ the United States Embassy in Russia sent off the following disapproving tweet: “Today’s verdict in the Pussy Riot case looks disproportionate.”

  • When to Overthrow Your Government: The Right to Resist in the World’s Constitutions

    Tom Ginsburg, Mila Versteeg and myself have just posted the preliminary version our upcoming article on the Right to Rebel within the world’s written constitutions unto SSRN. The article, which is available for download here, may well be of interest to our fellow scholars, bloggers and constitutional enthusiasts. 

  • The Central American Right to Rebel: why it served the 1982 Revolutionary Junta in Guatemala but could not save Zelaya:

    The first de facto right to resist in the Central American region was introduced by El Salvador in its constitution of 1886.(1) This right was subsequently expanded upon in 1945, and reached its present form in 1950.(2) Since that time many neighboring countries such as Honduras and Guatemala have likewise adopted similar provisions as have…

  • The Right to Rebel in Ghana

    This is the third in a series of case studies on the Constitutional Right to Rebel: Ghana ———————————————————————————————— The nation of Ghana was formed in 1957 as a sovereign union between the recently independent British protectorates of Gold Coast and Togoland.

  • Right to Rebel in Venezuela

    This is the second country study in Tom Ginsburg and I’s ongoing project to identify the potential risks and rewards of a constitutional Right to Rebel – Venezuela has had 26 separate constitutions since independence and the most recent have included various justifications for a popular right to rebel.

  • Fidel Castro’s Right to Rebel

    Tom Ginsburg and I are currently exploring the causes and effects of “right to rebel” provisions in constitutions. One of the country studies we will be including in our upcoming article on the subject is the following example from Cuban History.