Constitutional legitimacy and how that legitimacy empowers and limits constitutional actors and institutions has become increasingly important. After the wave of constitution making and innovation constitutional developments in the 1990s there has been a regression in liberal constitutionalism and rule of law across the globe. This panel will explore several topics concerning the nature of...
Democracy and Constitutional Legitimacy in Canada/Québec and Spain/Catalonia
In the 1998 Secession Reference, the Supreme Court of Canada opined that while a majority vote in favour of the independence of Québec would give rise to a duty to negotiate eventual separation, only the outcome of a negotiation, not the vote itself, could legitimate secession. Similar questions regarding the legitimacy of a unilateral declaration...
Taiwan‘s Indigenous People and the Challenge of Taiwanese Constitutionalism
In Taiwan, the advancement of indigenous values has been affected by the development of a national consciousness based on Confucian and liberal values. This process overlays deep political fissures between those individuals who equate Taiwanese identity with Chinese identity and those who assert a separate Taiwanese cultural and political identity. The Taiwanese identity combines Confucianism,...
The Impact of Indigenous Groups on New Zealand and American Constitutionalism and Law
Embedded within the New Zealand and the American legal systems are a series of rules concerning the peoples who inhabited the area prior to colonisation. These rules involve the establishment of European sovereignty, the ongoing status and use of indigenous lands, indigenous political institutions, the interpretation of treaties, and fiduciary obligations. The development of these...