July 16, 2017

Symposium: The Global South in Comparative Constitutional Law – Opening Remarks at the 50th VRÜ Anniversary Conference

July 16, 2017/ Tom Daly

Philipp Dann

This week, the journal Verfassung und Recht in Übersee (VRÜ) / Law and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America celebrates its 50th birthday with an international conference on “The Global South in Comparative Constitutional Law” in Berlin. While scholarship in comparative constitutional law is booming, this anniversary conference is an unusual event in at least two ways: It is asking particularly about the role of the Global South in comparative constitutional law, and it does so with a group of speakers that is mixed, if not dominated by voices from the Global South.

July 15, 2017

Symposium: The 12mm-Winchester-Gun and the Global South in Comparative Constitutional Law

July 15, 2017/ Tom Daly

Michael Riegner

This week, Verfassung und Recht in Übersee (VRÜ) / Law and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America celebrates its 50th birthday with an international conference on “The Global South in Comparative Constitutional Law” in Berlin. VRÜ will accompany this conference with an online symposium also featured on the blog of the International Association of Constitutional Law. The symposium is not only intended to make the conference presentations and debates accessible to audiences outside Berlin.

July 02, 2017

J.Y. Interpretation No. 748, The Same-Sex Marriage Case in Taiwan

July 02, 2017/ Tom Daly

Chien-Chih Lin

On May 24, 2017, the Constitutional Court of Taiwan (the TCC) issued Interpretation No. 748, declaring part of Taiwan’s Civil Code, which in essence prohibits same-sex marriage, unconstitutional. Unsurprisingly, it was a high-profile case: the TCC held not only oral debate but also a press conference before the promulgation of its final decision. Both are extraordinary in the history of the TCC. This decision requires the legislature to amend the Civil Code within two years, and same-sex couples may marry according to the current family chapter of the Civil Code should the legislature procrastinate or resist this judicial mandate.

June 17, 2017

The Far Reaching Constitutional Context of the Manchester Arena Terrorist Attack

June 17, 2017/ Tom Daly

Karin Loevy

Standard accounts of emergency powers in constitutional law tend to emphasize the problem of ‘powers’ vs. ‘constraints’. Emergencies require broad, discretionary and flexible decision making powers; the problem is how to authorize such powers while constraining them at the same time. As Clinton Rossiter famously stated in analyzing the failure of Article 48 of the Weimer Constitution: in this case ‘[o]ne of the two great problems of constitutional government, that of power, had thus been solved. The problem of limitations remained.’ (p 64)

June 06, 2017

Democratic Decay in Brazil and the New Global Populism

June 06, 2017/ Tom Daly

Fernando José Gonçalves Acunha & Juliano Zaiden Benvindo

In a text dedicated to the current political turmoil in Brazil and its potential constitutional effects, one of us stressed that despite that crisis, the core of the Brazilian 1988 Constitution is being dismantled at an unprecedented and fast pace (Benvindo, 2017). This would configure what Richard Albert has called a ‘constitutional dismemberment’, that is, a constitutional change that ‘seeks to transform the identity, the fundamental values or the architecture of the constitution’ (Albert, 2018).

May 18, 2017

Analysis: To Pay or Not to Pay — Russia’s Next Step Away from the European Convention

May 18, 2017/ Tom Daly

Tatiana Khramova

The Russian Constitutional Court (‘RCC’) has delivered a second judgment denying enforcement of ECtHR decisions. Shortly after its judgment of 19 April 2016 (the Anchugov case) on the impossibility of lifting a blanket constitutional ban on prisoners voting, the Court adopted yet another decision claiming that Russia would not enforce the decision of the ECtHR, this time with respect to the case of OAO Neftyanaya Kompaniya Yukos v Russia.

May 13, 2017

Analysis: Proprietors of Wakatū and Others v Attorney-General [2017] NZSC 17

May 13, 2017/ Tom Daly

Carwyn Jones

On 28 February 2017, the New Zealand Supreme Court issued one of the most important decisions from a New Zealand court in the last 25 years. In Wakatū v Attorney-General, the majority found that the Crown owed fiduciary duties to reserve 15,100 acres of land for the benefit of the customary Māori owners. This is a very different pathway for dealing with Māori claims of historical land loss than the systematised and politically negotiated settlements that have predominated since the mid-1990s.

April 26, 2017

Judicial Review of Constitutional Amendments in Times of Peace: The Colombian Case

April 26, 2017/ Tom Daly

Vicente Benítez-R.

The vast majority of the analyses concerning the Colombian peace process have focused on the transitional justice component. However, one key — and often overlooked — issue is the role of the Constitutional Court when reviewing the constitutionality of the multiple and profound constitutional amendments required to implement the agreement. I will try to offer here an insight about the significance of the Court in the implementation phase, and how the need for executing the agreement in a quick manner has led the Court to make the judicial review of amendments more flexible than what it was when originally designed in 2003.

April 25, 2017

Recent Judicial Appointments to the Israeli Supreme Court: A Victory for Politicians, or Is It?

April 25, 2017/ Tom Daly

Michal Tamir

The most recent appointments to the Israeli Supreme Court were crowned by many in Israel as a victory of conservative and right wing politicians led by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. The latter announced, immediately after the appointments, that “The controls of our legal flagship changed their direction tonight.” But, will the direction of the Supreme Court ruling, in fact, change?

April 21, 2017

Análisis de las Sentencias 155 y 156 de la Sala Constitucional del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia de Venezuela, sus efectos y respuesta

April 21, 2017/ Tom Daly

Carlos Arturo Villagrán Sandoval

Los días 27 y 28 de Marzo de 2017, la Sala Constitucional del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia Venezuela dictó una serie de sentencias, número 155 y 156, los cuales, junto con sucesos posteriores a ellas, han consolidado, a consideración del experto constitucionalista venezolano Allan Brewer-Carías, un golpe de estado “judicial” en Venezuela. De este modo, afianzando así una “dictadura judicial” bajo el poder ejecutivo de Nicolás Maduro. Este blog presenta una breve introducción a una serie de documentos sobre la situación en Venezuela proporcionado por el Profesor Brewer-Carías.

2017 Posts