One troubling element of being asked to write on a topic after Asanga Welikala is the distinct possibility that he will have already thought of the best arguments, and put them forward with more elegance than one can muster. This occasion is not an exception to this rule. I want instead to draw out two elements that are present in Asanga’s text and consider them in slightly more detail.
Read MoreThe pageantry of the Crown and the rituals of Parliament aside, perhaps the characteristic that beguiles students of the British constitution is its remarkable success in reflecting the nature of the polity in a body of organically evolved rules and arrangements.
Read MoreAllocating and coordinating powers over parts of the environment horizontally and vertically between governments can help – or hinder – efforts to address environmental problems. As the final blogger in this series, I explain how my research addresses this issue at the intersection of two of the major lines of inquiry of the IACL Research Group on New Frontiers of Federalism…
Read MoreComparative federalism scholars will find much to like in the remit of the newly formed IACL Research Group, “New Frontiers of Federalism.” The group’s leaders, Erika Arban and Antonia Baraggia, have outlined an ambitious set of research objectives, focusing a federal lens on some of the major challenges of our time — globalization, economic crisis, large-scale human migration, and democratic backsliding.
Read MoreIn its third line of investigation, the IACL’s Research Group on the New Frontiers of Federalism proposes to reflect, as the introduction to this symposium puts it, ‘on the role of federalism as a tool to deal with the growing complexity of a multilevel constitutional space’. The European Union, a multilevel constitutional space par excellence, seems an excellent case study for this area of research.
Read MoreOne of the focal points of the IACL research group ‘New Frontiers of Federalism’ is the role of local governments as new key players in the management of public services and the protection of rights. This exploration line centers on the analysis of metropolitan cities, as unique socio-economic and political spaces in contemporary times…
Read MoreThe newly formed IACL Research Group on “New Frontiers of Federalism”, of which I am a member, “aims at exploring a number of emerging issues in classic federal theory and practice” … My academic expertise lies in the area of UK Constitutional Law, with a particular focus on localism and devolution.
Read MoreThis past July we had the pleasure of announcing on the IACL Blog the creation of a new IACL Research Group, “New Frontiers of Federalism”. In this symposium, we would like to share some of the members' current work.
Read MoreWorking both in academia and the judiciary, I have been asked by students and colleagues whether I am an originalist, a textualist, a pragmatist, or a living constitutionalist judge. This question intrigues me. Why should I choose just one interpretative methodology? Across the world, constitutional scholars and judges have become partisan, as if accounts of constitutional interpretation were mutually exclusive.
Read MoreOn 30 September 2019, the parliamentary majority bloc called a vote on the appointment of six new judges to the Constitutional Court of Peru. Candidates were selected from a list of eleven attorneys who the Special Commission of Unicameral Congress had invited to participate, based on its partisan interests. Just days before, the Prime Minister had asked Congress for a vote of confidence…
Read MoreThe latest Global Research Update on the global platform Democratic Decay & Renewal (DEM-DEC), covering 1 August until 30 September 2019, is now available here. In each Update I write an editorial on key themes to help users to navigate the Update. This editorial centres on the theme ‘Reflecting on 1989‘.
Read MoreThe Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany of 23 May 1949, which at the time only encompassed “West Germany”, had just turned two years old when the “European Coal and Steel Community“ (ECSC, of 23 July 1952) came into force.
Read MoreGerman federalism is different from “dual” federal systems, such as the United States of America, characterised by parallel federal and state structures. By contrast, in Germany the federal administration is not fully developed: the Länder take care of the implementation of federal legislation as well as of their own in order to avoid costly and inefficient duplication.
Read MoreProbably the most notable feature of German governance is its highly consensual style of decision-making. The fathers and mothers of the German Basic Law provided for several institutional features promoting this consensual governance style.
Read MoreWith the enactment of the Basic Law, some of the central debates relating to Weimar Constitutional Law came to an end: the range of emergency competences of the Reichspresident became just as obsolete as the discussions about constitutional amendments and other problems. It is different with fundamental rights, though.
Read MoreIt is hard to overestimate the political as well as the legal implications of today’s ground-breaking Supreme Court ruling, writes Tarun Khaitan (University of Oxford). It applied an effects-based test to the case rather than trying to establish the purpose of Boris Johnson’s move to prorogue Parliament. In doing so it created a brand new and sophisticated ammunition in the rapidly ageing arsenal of democracy defenders.
Read MoreThere can be no functioning state without money. Finances enable policy-makers to act. The constitutional rules governing finances – the financial constitution – therefore determine an essential power factor, and in this respect bring about a highly-distinctive separation of powers between the Federation, the Länder and municipalities.
Read MoreIn a recent judgment, a South African High Court declared multiple provisions of South Africa’s surveillance law – the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act 70 of 2002 (RICA) – unconstitutional and invalid.
Read MoreWe hope you all enjoyed a lovely summer (or Austral winter). After the hiatus, the IACL-AIDC is back with some important news that we would like to share with all our readers.
Read MoreOn 23 May 2019 the German Basic Law turned 70. It entered into force on that day in 1949, after having been drafted for nine months by the ‘parliamentary council’ tasked with the elaboration of the constitution by the occupying forces and having been accepted by more than two thirds of the Länder assemblies.
Read MoreThe blog of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL)
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