The paper deals with the role played by constitutional courts in democratic conflict solving. It proposes an informational theory of constitutional review in which constitutional courts obtain, process, and transmit information to parties in a way that reduces the uncertainty causing their conflict. Courts acquire relevant information to the extent that they are accessible, process...
Ancestry into Opportunity: Dual Citizenship and Commodification
Since the 1990s, dozens of countries changed their laws to permit multiple citizenship. Numerous European Union (EU) countries – including Spain, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Romania – adopted laws that invite co-ethnics, emigrants and their descendants to reacquire citizenship from abroad. Millions of persons in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Israel have taken advantage of...
Authoritarian Constitutionalism in Japan?
Historically speaking, in the late 19th century, the national goal was to reorganize a typically feudalistic Japan into a modern nation‐state comparable to western developed countries of that time. It was accomplished in its own way through a modernization of Japanese political, economic and social structures and through an introduction of western constitutionalism to Japanese...
Balancing effective protection and agency overreach: lessons from Israel
Israel has a longstanding experience on dealing with security, and the many administrative tools developed in an effort to provide domestic safety. One must bear in mind that such effort may require extraordinary powers, not often used in a democracy. The decisions made will impact the level of infringement on human and civil rights. One...
Basic Income and Representative Democracy
The idea of providing an unconditional basic income to every individual, rich or poor, active or inactive, has become one of the most widely debated social security proposals. It is necessary to distinguish between two different concepts of basic income which have gained ground over the last few years. According to the one, a living...
Between an Imagined Affinity, the State and ASEAN: The Sources of Regional Human Rights Norms
The transition to an investee State necessitates reforms in the financial, corporate and public sectors. This paper focuses on reforms in the area of human rights. Using a case study of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, it illustrates that reforms are being shaped by two forces. National courts and human rights institutions are bypassing...
Between Human Trafficking and Illegal Migrants: In Search of an Effective Legal Protection for Fishermen Recruited Overseas Aboard Taiwanese Fishing Fleets
Concepts of human trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery are storming the notorious island of distant-water fisheries. Some foreign fishermen recruited overseas aboard Taiwanese fishing fleets have been reported as victims of exploitations. While a fiercer criminalization against the employers and human resources agencies is indeed necessary, there are nevertheless a considerable number of cases...
Beyond formalism: problems and prospects of aspirational principles in African federal constitutionalism. Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa in comparative perspective
Constitutions are often sources of shared values, as they may contain aspirational principles that guide public and private behaviors and to which citizens aspire. Along with common principles such as democracy or justice, there are other values that are more specific to the history and social context of a country. Some scholar contends that even...
Brazilian Social Constitutionalism 30 years later: why so distant?
The Brazilian Constitution promulgated in 1988 charted a state welfare project aimed at eradicating inequalities based, above all, on the strengthening of the social order and the protection of economic and social rights. It was our first constitutional text to take social economic rights seriously, granting them immediate applicability. However, in social and economic rights...
Brexit and the Unsettled Constitution of the United Kingdom
The UK‘s 2016 Referendum on continued EU membership may well become a defining moment in the constitutional law and politics of the UK. Undoubtedly, untangling and re-establishing a relationship with the EU and the wider world will have legal, economic and social effects within the UK, as well as in remaining member states. But Brexit...