The National-level policy for the development of a Social Credit System (SCS) in the PRC has been laid out in a Planning Outline adopted by the State Council in 2014. Due to be fully implemented by 2020, the SCS consists of a socially-embedded informational platform for reciprocal reporting and decision-making based on the ascription of...
The procedural side of migration in the EU. Building up democratic (and economic) resiliency through administrative flexibility
In dealing with migration a new constitutional and administrative flexibility is needed. Even administrative procedures are re-invented, as to become humane, effective, adaptive, resilient environments. They are therefore tailored on a case-by-case basis (one size doesn‘t fit all), capable of being shortened or rather enlarged and extended beyond their traditional boundaries (i.e. according to a...
When 5×4 is not a winning majority: judicial decision-making on unconstitutional constitutional amendments
The main democratic critiques on the strong judicial review tend to disregard the constitutional amendment as a mechanism to mitigate judicial supremacy. For political constitutionalism, supermajority rules do not offer equal treatment, as this rule favors the maintenance of the status quo by making changes more difficult to occur. Underlying this assertion is the belief...
Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments and Constitutional Replacements
The tension between “eternity“ clauses and the possibility of constitutional replacement has been noted but not adequately explored. Constitutional theory must leave room for replacing a constitution with an eternity clause protecting some specific matter such as federalism or secularism with one modifying federalism or secularism, but then the sense in which the existing constitution...
The Legal Logic of Chinese Economic Reform
The Chinese reform towards market economy has achieved remarkable success in the past 40 years. Yet the course of the reform experienced constitutional hurdles as the Constitution, established in 1982, held socialism, against capitalist way of production, as the central, ideological pillar that defines the Constitution. To legitimatize the reform, the authorities set out to...
Tribunais de Contas (Courts of Audit): the new protagonist of the 30th year of the Brazilian Constitution
The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 did not create the Courts of Audit, which exist in Brazil since the XIX century and nowadays are present in each state and federal governments and serve the purpose to control the public budget and to judge how the officials manage public money. Nevertheless, the Brazilian Constitution promulgated in 1988...
Transnational Surrogacy: When the Domestic Law is Not Enough
Abstract Transnational reproductive practices produce an increasing number of cases where legal controversies occur in the domestic recognition of family ties. This paper elaborates on these controversies and argues for the need to formulate international norms. The author will examine particularly the key ethical and legal issues that shape the contours of the future normative...
Thick and thin moralities and legitimacy in international adjudication – the case of the WTO
WTO adjudication faces a crisis of social legitimacy. I diagnose that crisis in terms of competing theories of interpretation, and thick and thin political moralities. WTO law‘s dominant self-image is as voluntarist-positivist treaty law, reflecting an implicit thin international political morality. Interpretation is exclusively a matter of textual analysis complemented by originalist intent. Yet text...
The Struggles of Majoritarian Democracy: An Incipient Latin American Trend Towards the Development of Dialogic Democracy
The present paper presents the struggles faced by contemporary societies in regard to Majoritarian Democracy — struggles which appear alongside the growing crisis of Representative Democracy. Latin America, tainted by the historical exclusion of social identity groups, is, therefore, the perfect stage to study such issues. Dissatisfaction in terms of social justice and political inclusion...
Why the U.S. Supreme Court Should Recognize a Compelling State Interest in Preserving Candidate Time
There are just not enough hours in the day to get the job done! This type of “time drought“ identified by cognitive scientists takes on democratic significance if the person experiencing it is a democratically elected official. Those elected officials may thereby lack the ability to effectively represent the constituents who put them in office....