In January 2017, seven judges of the Indian Supreme Court split 4 – 3 on the meaning of the word ‘his’. Underlying this deceptively simply linguistic dispute, however, was a much deeper disagreement: a disagreement about the very vision of democracy that the Indian Constitution is committed to.
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The legal blogosphere is well informed on the upcoming referendum on the constitutional amendment that seeks, among other things, to transform Turkey’s parliamentary governmental system into a sui generis system, namely ‘presidentialism à la Turca’. The details and worrisome implications of the constitutional amendment have been widely covered. The dangers of reverting to the pre-parliamentary period, perpetuating the diminished role of the judiciary, bypassing constitutional checks and balances, and the lack of process and output legitimacy in the devising of the amendment have all been adroitly pointed out.
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For decades now, the Islamic headscarf has been a topic of societal debate and legal disputes in several European countries. Headscarf bans (often formulated as either bans on headgear or as general bans on religious symbols or dress) have been introduced by schools, public authorities, service providers (such as sports facilities and restaurants), and private employers. This phenomenon is most widespread in France and Belgium. In many cases, bans have passed domestic judicial review.
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In recent months, there has been much discussion in public law about whether the executive branch of government has the prerogative or power to withdraw from a treaty regime without legislative support. This question, answered in the negative in the case of R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union in relation to ‘Brexit’, shares some parallels with the recent decision of the High Court of South Africa, in which the South African government’s purported withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was held to be invalid, and unconstitutional.
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The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT) passed the Law No. 6771 on amendments to the Constitution on January 21, 2017 with the votes of MPs of the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (JDP), that has been ruling the country for almost 15 years and the Nationalist Movement Party (NMP) which adheres to Turkish nationalism. The law was approved in the GNAT by 339 votes out of 550, surpassing the 330-vote threshold to hold a referendum but falling short of the 367-vote threshold needed to enact the amendments directly.
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The general elections organized on the 11th of December 2016 in Romania have seen the lowest level of participation since the fall of communism in December 1989. Winning 46% of votes, a coalition made of PSD (Social-Democratic Party) together with a smaller social-liberal party (ALDE) managed to get the simple majority of seats in the Romanian Parliament. The formation of the Government proved to be somewhat difficult as the leader of PSD could not become Prime Minister due to integrity problems.
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On 17 January 2017, the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) ruled on the application of the German Federal Council to find that the far right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) unconstitutional pursuant to Article 21 para. 2 of the German Basic Law. This constituted the second such party ban application against the NPD after the initial attempt in 2001 had failed on procedural grounds, chiefly due to the involvement of domestic intelligence agency informants in the higher echelons of the party.
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The UK Supreme Court judgment in Miller v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union on the morning of 24 January 2017 made it clear that an Act of Parliament is required for a notice under article 50(2) of the Treaty of the European Union. The Government and Opposition should now state their positions clearly on the form of such an Act without delay. So far, there has been little such discussion.
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Les décisions rendues le 9 novembre 2016 par l’assemblée du contentieux du Conseil d’Etat (n° 395122 Fédération départementale des libres penseurs de Seine-et-Marne ; n° 395223 Fédération de la libre pensée de Vendée, conclusions Aurélie Bretonneau) tendent à mettre un terme aux hésitations manifestées par les tribunaux administratifs et cours administratives d’appel quant à la possibilité d’installer des crèches de Noël dans les bâtiments et autres emplacements publics.
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El pasado día 14 de diciembre el Tribunal Constitucional (TC) español dictó una Providencia por la que se acordaba tramitar el incidente de ejecución de sentencia presentado por la Abogacía del Estado en relación con varios apartados de la Resolución 306/XI del Parlament de Cataluña, a saber, los capítulos sobre el “Referéndum” y “Proceso Constituyente” (Título I sobre “El futuro político de Cataluña”). Esta Resolución suponía, según el Abogado del Estado, un incumplimiento de la STC 259/2015 y otras Resoluciones dictadas por el TC en anteriores incidentes de nulidad.
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