Judicial Control of Decree-Laws in Emergency Regimes - A Self-Destruction Attempt by the Turkish Constitutional Court?

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Judicial Control of Decree-Laws in Emergency Regimes - A Self-Destruction Attempt by the Turkish Constitutional Court?

Selin Esen

Due to a coup d’état attempt on 15 July 2016, in accordance with Article 120 of the 1982 Constitution, the Council of Ministers presided over by the President of the Republic declared a state of emergency on July 21st for three months. On October 11th it was prolonged for a further three months. The declaration of the state of emergency and its prolongation was approved by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Since the state of emergency was declared the Government issued eleven emergency decree-laws to date.

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Constitutional Implications of the Trump Adminstration

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Constitutional Implications of the Trump Adminstration

Tom Ginsburg

The American constitutional system is famously designed to guard against tyranny.  Many observers think it will now face a major test because of the ascent of President-elect Trump, who has a history of ignoring norms and conventions that constrain lesser men. Norms such as don’t lie; don’t commit sexual assault; don’t commit tax fraud.

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Colombia after the Plebiscite - Prospects for Peace

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Colombia after the Plebiscite - Prospects for Peace

Sebástian Machado

As reported in this blog, the Colombian people decided to vote against the peace agreement signed between the Colombian Government and the FARC guerrilla group by a very slim margin. As with Brexit, the outcome of this public vote was highly unexpected, and coupled with the massive public demonstrations and the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to President Juan Manuel Santos …

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Critical Reflections on the High Court's Judgment in R(Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union

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Critical Reflections on the High Court's Judgment in R(Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union

Mark Elliot & Hayley J. Hooper

The judgment of the High Court in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2016] EWHC 2768 (Admin), decided on 3 November 2016, has been subjected to astonishing and wholly misguided criticism by politicians and the press. Let us be clear, then, at the outset of this post that we entertain no doubt whatever about the constitutional appropriateness of the Court ruling on the question that was put to it in Miller.

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A Reflection on the 'Dualism within Dualism' in the Interaction between International Law and Domestic Law in Guatemala

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A Reflection on the 'Dualism within Dualism' in the Interaction between International Law and Domestic Law in Guatemala

Carlos Arturo Villagrán Sandoval

In July 2016 the Guatemalan Constitutional Court delivered a first judgment making a positive obligation for the Guatemalan government to provide free quality bilingual – Mayan/Spanish – education in highly populated indigenous areas. The Court stressed that the right to free quality education is deeply connected to the right to development of an individual within his or her own culture …

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Decisions of the Swiss Sovereign on Two Popular Constitutional Initiatives

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Decisions of the Swiss Sovereign on Two Popular Constitutional Initiatives

Thomas Fleiner

On September 25, the Swiss sovereign (according to Article 195 and Article 142 par 2 of the Constitution) rejected two popular constitutional initiatives and the voters decided on a referendum (Article 142 par 1 of the Constitution) against the law on the intelligence service. The sovereign rejected both initiatives and the majority of the voters accepted the law on the intelligence service. The turnout was about 42%.

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Colombian Peace Hangs on a Very Special Plebiscite

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Colombian Peace Hangs on a Very Special Plebiscite

Martha Maya

On 2 October 2016, Colombian citizens will have the opportunity to endorse an historic Peace Agreement — the ‘Final Agreement to End the Conflict and Build a Stable and Lasting Peace’ — which will hopefully put an end to more than 50 years of armed conflict. In the last step of its search for peace, the Colombian Government will submit the whole text of the final agreement to a vote of the people.

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Right to a Fair Trial

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Right to a Fair Trial

Marcelo Figuereido

The fair, public and expeditious characteristics of judicial proceedings are of no value at all if there is no judicial proceedings. Accordingly, the right to a fair trial embodies the “right to a court”, of which the right to institute proceedings as the right of access, constitutes one aspect, while the guarantees relating to the organization and composition of the court, and the conduct of the proceedings, constitute another. In sum, the whole makes up the right to a fair hearing.

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Interpretation and the Impossibility of Implementation in Russian Prisoner Voting

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Interpretation and the Impossibility of Implementation in Russian Prisoner Voting

William Partlett & Tatiana Khramova

On 19 April 2016, the Russian Constitutional Court (RCC) exercised its newfound power to declare decisions of international human rights bodies “impossible to implement.”  After a petition by the Ministry of Justice, the RCC declared a 2013 decision of the European Court of Human Rights on prisoner voting rights (Anchugov and Gladkov v Russia) impossible to implement in Russia because it contradicted a clear provision of the Russian Constitution.

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Emboldening a Country in Distress - The South African Constitutional Court on Nkandla

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Emboldening a Country in Distress - The South African Constitutional Court on Nkandla

Raisa Cachalia

The office of the Public Protector is one of six institutions established in Chapter 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 to support constitutional democracy (often referred to as ‘Chapter 9 institutions’). While it is modeled on the Swedish Ombudsman – with the power to keep government action in check – the Public Protector is a unique creation with more power than comparable institutions in foreign jurisdictions.

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Virtual Roundtable: Can the Colombian Model be Generalized?

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Virtual Roundtable: Can the Colombian Model be Generalized?

David Landau

This week, we return to some of the themes discussed at the IACL roundtable held in Melbourne in May 2016. In this fourth and final blog post, David Landau (Mason Ladd Professor, Associate Dean for International Programs,  Florida State University College of  Law) responds to Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa’s lecture “The peace process and the Constitution: Constitution making as peace making?”

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Virtual Roundtable: The Peace Process and the Constitution: Constitution Making as Peace Making?

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Virtual Roundtable: The Peace Process and the Constitution: Constitution Making as Peace Making?

Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa

This week, we return to some of the themes discussed at the IACL roundtable held in Melbourne in May 2016. In this second blog post, we publish the text of the University of Melbourne 2016 Human Rights Lecture delivered by Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa, President of the International Association of Constitutional Law, entitled “The Peace Process and the Constitution: Constitution Making as Peace Making?”

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Right to liberty, unconstitutional constitutional amendments, and foreign judges in PNG

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Right to liberty, unconstitutional constitutional amendments, and foreign judges in PNG

Anna Dziedzic

On 26 April 2016, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea held that the detention of asylum seekers transferred by Australia to Manus Island, PNG, was contrary to their right to personal liberty under PNG’s Constitution. The decision clearly has political and legal ramifications for Australia’s policies on asylum seekers, under which asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat are detained, and potentially resettled, in Papua New Guinea and Nauru (see further discussion, eg here and here).

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Recalibrating the roles of the Dutch Parliament and Dutch judges when engaging with international law?

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Recalibrating the roles of the Dutch Parliament and Dutch judges when engaging with international law?

Maartje de Visser

Two proposals are currently pending before the Dutch Parliament that purport to enhance its role in managing the relationship between domestic law and international agreements. Both were introduced as private-member bills by MP Taverne, a member of the liberal party (VVD) that is in coalition government with Labour (PvdA).

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Constitutional Reform in Zambia

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Constitutional Reform in Zambia

Mulela Margaret Munalula

Zambia is undergoing a protracted process of constitutional reform which began two decades ago.  Due to numerous setbacks, the constitutional reform process has been abandoned and restarted several times.  An article in Voices from the Field on 29 January 2016 offers a detailed analysis of the constitution making process in Zambia to date. Although it appears that the latest attempt ...

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