Anindita MUKHERJEE

While it is clear that the Indian federation is Union-heavy, the Constitution does build in some mechanisms of accountability, to check the use of executive power. The legislature is expected to interrogate executive decision-making, with sub-committees expressly tasked with examining subordinate legislation.

Anindita MUKHERJEE

The Indian state’s response to the COVID-19 crisis has been breath-taking in its callousness. It has unleashed a humanitarian disaster of mammoth proportions, described by some as the worst that we have witnessed since achieving independence. It has also exposed, in ways that are now impossible to ignore, the perils of an over-centralized state.

José María SERNA DE LA GARZA

With great sadness we learned of the recent passing of Héctor Fix Fierro, a former First Vice-President of the IACL.

Akshay AURORA

Indian federalism rests on three pillars: a strong centre, co-operative federalism, and flexibility. These characteristics have now assumed a pivotal role in India’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which demands a quick and efficient response from the central (or Union) and state governments.

Marcelo FIGUEIREDO

This post outlines some of the current steps taken by the Brazilian federal government to alleviate the social and economic dimensions of the public health crisis induced by the global pandemic. It also reflects on the constitutionally sanctioned involvement of the private sector in healthcare…

Ali YILDIZ & Leighann SPENCER

The right to property is enshrined in both international and regional law (including in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which binds Turkey). In Turkey, it is also given constitutional recognition. Yet, on the pretext of handling a domestic emergency and fighting terrorism, the Turkish Government is infringing on the right using state of emergency and anti-terror laws…

Aoife NOLAN

COVID-19 has led to an explosion of human rights-related litigation. Given the wide-ranging implications of COVID-19 for social rights enjoyment globally and states responses thereto, it is hardly surprising that a significant portion of such litigation thus far has focused on these rights.

Abdurrachman SATRIO

The current coronavirus crisis has forced many countries around the world to take extraordinary measures. According to Tom Ginsburg and Mila Versteeg, countries are taking measures in three ways – albeit with local variations…

Colm O’CINNEIDE

In Part I of this blog post, I examined some of the factors that have contributed to the  marginalisation of social and economic rights (SER). In this post, I turn to recent political and legal developments that have begun to complicate this dynamic…

Oreste POLLICINO

Singapore: it is a normal May afternoon in the Pandemic season in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. A four-legged robot, fitted with a camera, is walking through the park staring at visitors. One’s first impression might be that it is a new walking surveillance tool developed in relation to the Pandemic…

Anmol JAIN & Prannv DHAWAN

In an attempt to break the chain of transmission, the union government’s Home Ministry has extended the nationwide lockdown for another two weeks, on May 4th in India. This was the second extension of the lockdown first imposed on March 24th…

Colm O’CINNEIDE

Coronavirus; climate change; the impact of the 2008 economic crisis and the austerity policies that followed; the cumulative social toll across the globe of four decades of neo-liberal economic governance. The combined impact of all these factors has splintered the broad political consensus that had existed throughout the 1990s and early 2000s as to the sustainability of the existing global socio-economic order….

Antonia BARAGGIA & Giuseppe MARTINICO

We are still trying to understand the implications of the shocking decision by the German Constitutional Court (BVG) on the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) and its impact on the future of the EU integration process. This post will not analyse the content of the decision. Rather, it will argue that this judgment and other recent critical events understand the integration process in light of something resembling the “Compact Theory” approach…

Silvana SCIARRA

The main argument I wish to offer to wider discussions on the legal dimensions of the responses to the Covid-19 pandemic is centred on the effects of the emergency measures adopted in the wake of the crisis, which inevitably developed into economic and social disruptions.

Ingrid LEIJTEN

Human rights potentially conflict with one another. This is particularly visible during the current Covid-19 crisis. The right to the highest attainable standard of health, but also to access to affordable housing and social security, impose positive obligations on States that conflict with their duties to secure other rights, such as freedom of movement or property rights.

Zaid AL-ALI

In response to a year of popular protests demanding change, Algeria’s new president launched a constitutional reform effort. The draft that was published last week tweaks the existing Constitution in ways that are unlikely to satisfy the demands for radical change.

Nensi SINANAJ

In February 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) unanimously declared inadmissible the application in the case of Yeshtla v. the Netherlands. This case deals with issues of social housing and irregular residence. It also touches upon essential questions relating to possible discriminatory effects of the ECtHR decisions in matters of state social policy, such as whether the Court has been successful in using fundamental norms as tools to support those who are in vulnerable positions.

Stanley L. WINER

Yossi Nehushtan and Ash Murphy’s blog post "This is not the people's government or the democratic will of the people" deals with the democratic theory that underlies the Brexit decision, and in particular with the relevance to the Brexit issue of the way in which the existing majoritarian single member plurality rule electoral system in the U.K. works. The authors are opposed to the non-proportionality between party votes and seats that such a system exhibit…

Gaurav MUKHERJEE

It is clear that in the months to come, political and legal contestations over social rights will intensify. The Social Rights Research Group (RGSR) hopes to be able to facilitate a wide-ranging dialogue and help connect researchers and practitioners from across jurisdictions. We want to enable the asking of difficult questions about social rights theory and practice - and the formulation of responses to them.

Farewell to Co-Editor Associate Professor Tom Daly

Today is bitter-sweet for the IACL-Blog Team, and in particular for us as co-editors. In fact, along with the launch of a superb new symposium on 'Social Rights During and After COVID-19' and a blog post by Stan Winer on the complexity of democratic choices, we celebrate incredible growth in the readership numbers of the blog. But today we are also saying farewell (at least, formally) to someone who has played a significant role in helping grow the blog.