Nicholas PETRIE

Much of the common law world has seen a quiet constitutional and public law revolution of sorts over the last two decades. A number of developments and factors have led courts to increasingly (or more explicitly) review legislation against human rights and civil liberties standards. This has variously been described as the ‘new Commonwealth model of constitutionalism’, as a rise in dialogue-orientated reasoning and an uptake of inter-institutional disagreement.

Tom Gerald DALY

This twelfth monthly update was issued on 26 July 2019 and includes

• New research worldwide from June-late July 2019

• A significant list of additions suggested by DEM-DEC Users…

Jeong-In YUN

The Korean Constitutional Court (‘KCC’) on April 11, 2019, ruled that the abortion ban was unconstitutional and ordered the law needs to be revised by the end of 2020. The case dealt with a constitutional challenge by a female doctor who was being criminally prosecuted for performing abortions.

Erika ARBAN & Antonia BARAGGIA

The newly formed IACL research group on “New Frontiers of Federalism” aims at exploring a number of emerging issues in classic federal theory and practice. Traditionally, federal arrangements have been adopted to deal with the complexity of divided societies, and thus to accommodate the various forms of diversity (ethnic, religious, linguistic, etc.) existing within a constitutional legal order.

Karan GUPTA

On 24 March, 2019, a three judge Bench of the Kenyan High Court dismissed a constitutional challenge to Sections 162(a), (c) and 165 of the Kenyan Penal Code, which criminalized acts which are ‘unnatural’, ‘against the order of nature’ and grossly indecent. It was contended that the provisions disproportionately affected LGBT individuals and should be struck down

John SIMTE

The evolving use of technology by government(s) to create a surveillance security regime to monitor dissent in present day India has a dangerous organic relationship with the retention of statutory offences criminalising political speech. Their object is the same; imposing fundamental restrictions to constitutional freedoms.

Erika ARBAN & Tom Gerald DALY

To conclude the IACL ‘Symposium Season’ celebrating the one-year anniversary of the re-launch of the new-look blog – and before the 6-week hiatus starting on 1 August – we have put together a ‘Indian Young Scholars’ Mini-Symposium featuring four contributions from emerging Indian students of constitutional law, writing on issues focusing on India and more generally on the Global South. 

Erika ARBAN

On 20-21 June 2019, Dr. Erika Arban convened the workshop ‘Cities in Federal Theory’. The workshop was an initiative of the Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law, a program funded by the Australian Research Council for 2017-2022 and based at Melbourne Law School.

Yonatan FESSHA

Members of one of the largest ethnic groups in Ethiopia, the Sidama, have threatened the federal government with a unilateral declaration of secession. I am exaggerating. They are not threatening to secede from the country but from one of the states that make up the Ethiopian federation…

Amel ARFAOUI

Tunisia is the only state in the Arab world that has managed to make a democratic transition from the Arab Spring: for this reason, it may be of special interest to constitutional scholars to understand how Tunisia has proceeded to constitutionally ensure the independence of the Judiciary.

Elena KREMYANSKAYA

Currently Russia is facing quite a few challenges, flowing not only from the history of the country but also from recent constitutional developments with the country as well as from developments in constitutional law practice worldwide. In this piece, I try to point out several of these challenges which may impact on the future of the country.

Hayley PITCHER

Last year, 2018, marked the beginning of a new era at the Supreme Court of Canada; Chief Justice Wagner completed his first full year in the role. Prior to his appointment, Chief Justice McLachlin led the Court for 17 years. She earned a reputation as a consensus builder on the Court, but that is not to suggest Charter cases decided by the Court were consistently unanimous.

Tom Gerald DALY

DEM-DEC is Marking its First Anniversary

DEM-DEC was launched on 25 June 2018 to assist researchers and policymakers focused on the global deterioration of liberal democracy, and on re-thinking democracy. DEM-DEC has delivered on its core purpose is to bring scholars and policymakers together in a collaborative project to pool expertise on democratic decay and democratic renewal…

Chiara GRAZIANI

On June 13-14, 2019, the IACL Research Group on Constitutional Responses to Terrorism – chaired by Kim L. Scheppele (Princeton University) and coordinated by Arianna Vedaschi (Bocconi University) – held its annual Workshop, titled “Counter-Terrorism at the Crossroad between International, Regional and Domestic Law” at Bocconi University, Milan (Italy).

Carlos Arturo VILLAGRAN SANDOVAL

Between 2018 and the first part of 2019, Latin American states continued to experience the effects of longstanding regional phenomena and trends that present a deterioration of their state-institutions and democracy. In the face of these challenges, societies in the region have found it difficult to find a solution to the problems that these phenomena present. This post will give a brief exposition of three of these phenomena and trends that present constitutional challenges for the development of democracy and rule of law in Latin America.

Radhika AGARWAL

There has been a series of interesting constitutional law developments across South Asia this year. Key highlights include petitions challenging the ban on entry of women in places of religious worship in India, and challenges to the constitutional validity of the Presidential pardon granted to persons on death row in Sri Lanka.

Rayner THWAITES

In December 2015 new statutory powers of citizenship stripping for ‘disallegient conduct’ entered into force in Australia. In November 2018, a Bill was introduced into the Australian Parliament to expand the scope of one of these deprivation powers, debate on this Bill occupying Parliamentary committees through early 2019.

Barbara GRABOWSKA-MOROZ, Katarzyna ŁAKOMIEC & Michał ZIÓŁKOWSKI

On 15 June 2019 the Polish Ministry of Justice announced on its website that the Ministry would sue a group of lawyers from the Cracow Institute of Criminal Law, who criticized draft amendments to the Criminal Code. The case of “48-hours-lasting lawsuit” touches upon two fundamental issues: academic freedom and quality of the legislative process.

Reuven (Ruvi) ZIEGLER

Having notified the European Council on 29 March 2017 of its intention to withdraw from the EU, the negotiated Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration on the Future Relationship between the UK and the EU27 was thrice rejected by the UK House of Commons, forcing the Prime Minister to announce her departure. On 23rd May 2019, the UK held European Parliamentary Elections with Brexit dominating the electoral landscape.

Valentina CARLINO

“Solidarity is the glue that keeps our Union together. […] And when it comes to managing the refugee crisis, we have started to see solidarity. I am convinced much more solidarity is needed. But I also know that solidarity must be given voluntarily. It must come from the heart. It cannot be forced. We often show solidarity most readily when faced with emergencies.”