In order to frame the panel discussion, this paper defines the phenomenon of hyper-legislation and outlines the constitutional problems that it poses. Roach coined the phrase “hyper-legislation“ to describe Australia‘s legislative response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Arguably, the phenomenon extends beyond the national security realm. The Australian legal system is now populated by innumerable...
Substate Identity-based constitutional claims: Negotiation, Rejection, and Confrontation
This paper discusses constitutional claims proposed by national identities. Constitutional debates over the roles of national identities are traditionally associated with the protection of minority rights, yet there is perhaps a larger group of constitutional demands that is fostered by identity groups (e.g. Scot or the Catalonian) . These identity-based constitutional claims are organized into...
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,...
State structure and governance: multi-identity democracies and conflicts resolution in India and Nepal
State structure has always to deal with ethnic realities rooted in specific territories within a single State. Various public law studies have shown that, to face this problem, the preferable level of government is not a centralised but a decentralised one. Today federalism is considered one of the privileged solutions for the administration of power....
Spanish Constitutional Court As Guardian of the Constitution
The Spanish Constitutional Court has been confronted by a secessionist movement posed by Institutions of the Autonomous Region of Catalonia. Through rulings as Decision n. 114/2017, of 17 October [Action of unconstitutionality against the Law of the Catalonian Parliament ‘On Self-determination Referendum‘]; Decision n. 120/2017, of 31 October [Action against the Resolution on nominating members...
State of Exception and Literature
In this panel, I seek to demonstrate a new dimension to understand literature and its connection to law. In the title of my paper, I refer to “state of exception’,“ an expression that lately has been overused. In my hunch, we may make out from a different perspective. To put it in more blunt terms:...
The identity of Public Law in view of the Constitutionalisation, Deconstitutionalisation and Europeanisation of German Administrative Law
While constitutionalisation constitutes a common phenomenon of European administrative legal orders, German administrative law may be regarded as probably the most constitutionalised administrative law system, culminating in Fritz Werner‘s understanding of ‘Verwaltungsrecht als konkretisiertes Verfassungsrecht‘ (‘administrative law as concretised constitutional law‘). Against this background, the article in a first step not only elaborates on the...
The frontier of the international refugee regime: Refugee protection, legal orientalism, and what better alternative in the Middle East and Asia?
The Refugee Convention has been described as the definitive articulation of refugee law and the foundation of the international refugee regime; in its absence it seems law has a lesser role in the protection of refugees. Yet the Refugee Convention does not apply in jurisdictions where a majority of refugees live including most states in...