Iddo Porat

A proposal to ban circumcision for non-medical reasons in Iceland has generated a heated debate over whether banning the practice would amount to an attack on religious freedom. Iddo Porat argues that we should be suspicious of any majority proposed legislation which affects only minority groups.

This article is one of two pieces published by EUROPP on this topic. For an alternative view on the issue, see the other article here.

Krithika Ashok

The Supreme Court of India (“Court”) has, for much of its life, seen low rates of dissent. While the rate of non-unanimity, somewhat respectably, hovered at around 8.4 per cent in its early years, it has languished at less than 1 per cent in more recent times. This has naturally evoked curiosity given that it is the court of last resort in India, tasked with deciding presumably the most contentious or controversial legal issues here.

Gautam Bhatia

The Indian Supreme Court has long been recognised for judicial creativity. The development of its public interest litigation docket has been characterised by a disavowal of legal forms such as rules of standing and strict evidentiary standards, in favour of a more substantive approach to adjudication, which focuses on just outcomes in an unequal society. While this has allowed the Court to be flexible on questions involving both the scope of constitutional rights, and on the nature of remedies that it can fashion to address questions of substantive injustice, it has – inevitably – had an impact on the stability and consistency of legal doctrine.

Gaurav Mukherjee

On 12 January 2018, the four most senior judges of the Supreme Court of India (Supreme Court) after the Chief Justice of India (Chief Justice), held an unprecedented press conference in New Delhi. Here, they presented a letter listing a set of grievances regarding the conduct of the Chief Justice to members of the media. The four judges went to great lengths to establish that they had sought to resolve the matter internally by first presenting the grievances to the Chief Justice.

Tarunabh Khaitan

The Indian Supreme Court stands at a crossroads. As the contributions to this timely blog symposium indicate, at a time when the country is facing serious prospects of democratic deconsolidation, its main constitutional watchdog faces an unprecedented existential crisis. The catalyst for the crisis is the pressure the Modi government has apparently been exerting on the judiciary ever since it took office in 2014.

Tom Gerald Daly

In September 2017 I was engaged by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (‘African Court’) to propose a design for an African Judicial Network, to create a platform for formal collaboration between courts and other judicial bodies across the African Union (AU).  The African Court has now permitted the final version of the report to be made public. Titled ‘An African Judicial Network: Building Community, Delivering Justice’ (December 2017), it can be accessed on the website of the Constitution Transformation Network (ConTransNet) at Melbourne Law School.

Asanga Welikala

The government of national unity, formed in 2015 promising major reforms in a new constitution, has now all but ended. Only a fragment of the promised reforms was enacted, and there is now no hope for any further. With only stagnation between crises in prospect, the weaknesses of the compromise reforms made to the semi-presidential system in 2015 are increasingly exposed.

Nanako Tamaru

Women’s participation in peace and security processes is vital for lasting peace. This message has been echoed again and again by the international community and expressed through UN Security Council Resolutions, the Sustainable Development Goals, and countless other declarations and strategic plans.  Yet, despite this global consensus, women have remained marginalized in most peace and transition processes to date and constitution-building processes are no exception.