The quarter-century of politics in twelve non-Baltic post-Soviet states shows the approaches of transitional justice from blaming to naming towards the abuses of human rights committed by Soviet and post-Soviet regimes. All post-Soviet regimes officially blame Stalinist regime in general while very few – Georgia and Ukraine – actually blame post-Stalinist regime, name concrete perpetrators...
Brexit, EU international agreements and the UK
This section examines the external relations implications of the UK‘s withdrawal from the EU. Understanding the impact of Brexit on the EU‘s international agreements and the UK‘s legal status in relation to these agreements, once it leaves the EU, is of particular salience as any final arrangement made with the UK will act as a...
Bringing the Sunflower Movement into Perspective: Building the Rule of Law on a Flawed Political Foundation
The Sunflower Movement will go down in Taiwan‘s history as one of the most significant incidents in the 21st century, yet we are only beginning to understand its significance. I use Weingast‘s theory of democratic consolidation to argue that the Cross-Strait Service Pact crossed the limit of the institutional capacity of TW‘s constitutional design, exposing...
Can International Human Rights Law Survive the Rise of Artificial Intelligence
What is the impact of the rise of artificial intelligence on the fabric of international human rights law? The paper examines possible answers to this question through the lens of the major challenges and critiques posed against human rights, namely (1) its failure to address issues of inequality and the related issue of privileging of...
Citizenship by investment naturalization and the globalization of Citizenship Law
This article introduces citizenship by investment as global citizenship. This refers to the direct sale of membership entitlements and immediate naturalization, creating formal legal and fragmented market citizenship. Factors in the globalization of citizenship law include a presupposition of plural (dual and multiple) citizenship, missing physical residence, reference to a supranational individual fundamental rights sphere,...
Civil Constitutionalism (and the lack thereof) in Taiwan
The emergence of populism around the globe mirrors the general distrust and dissatisfaction with the political branches. Notwithstanding the widespread of populism in both old and young democracies, Taiwan seems to be resilient to the pathology of populism, and democracy in Taiwan remains stable. Nevertheless, Taiwan‘s democracy is actually built on shaky grounds, an issue...
Common Legal Drafting Rules for the Portuguese-speaking countries and regions: current state of the project and methodological approach
The definition of Common Legal Drafting Rules for the Portuguese-speaking Countries and Regions started with the assembling of a “Lisbon Team“ of scholars and specialists in legal drafting and a team of specialist from all the countries and regions, together with a high profile team of international consultants. The status of the legal drafting rules...
Concentration of Wealth and Democracy under the Japanese Constitution
In the 70 years since the war, Japan has been a stable democratic country. It can be said that its success has been based on postwar economic reform. The problem is the relationship between such economic reform and guarantee of property rights. The Supreme Court of Japan has held that such economic reforms are constitutional...
Conflict managers or avoiders? The role of global courts in entangling normative orders
What do the Lockerbie and US-Shrimps cases, the Swordfish dispute and the Southern Bluefin Tuna arbitration have in common? Often cited when addressing norm conflicts in international law, they were instrumental in moving interface conflicts center-stage, raising more general questions about unity and pluralism in international law. But a common terminology focused solely on conflict...
Constitutional Amendments As A Means to Entrench Public Policies: The Brazil Experience
The Brazilian experience in constitutional amendments illustrates several difficulties posed in conciliating analytical constitutionalism with democracy. The Brazilian constitution in its 30th anniversary, may reach 100 amendments, suggesting even a case of abusive constitutionalism. Most amendments bring to the constitutional text, components of public policies put in place by the incumbent president and parties, sometimes...