PANEL SESSIONS I MONDAY JUNE 25 2018 4.45 PM – 6.15 PM

Room: CPD-LG.59

  • CONSTITUTIONALISM IN CONTEXT I
    The papers on this panel, drawn from the forthcoming volume Constitutionalism in Context (CUP 2018), offer contextual and interdisciplinary perspectives on issues and jurisdictions at the cutting edge of the study of constitutionalism. Each chapter introduces the reader to a jurisdiction in a context-rich way, then proceeds to explore an emerging issue at length in the context of the jurisdiction. The chapters on this panel cover the performance of constitutional review by institutions other than courts; the proliferation of government institutions that fall outside the traditional separation of powers framework and specialize in protecting constitutional democracy; the tension between constitutional autochthony and global norms; the stealth transformation of constitutional orders ; and the emergence of forms of judicial review that range from “soft“ to “super-hard“ and beyond.
  • Constitutional Backsliding: Colombia
    Recent scholarship has highlighted the theoretical possibility and examples of the tools of constitutional change being used “abusively,“ in order to erode the democratic order. This chapter will explore the experience of constitutional backsliding in Colombia, and the response to those efforts by the Colombian Constitutional Court and other political actors. The chapter will explain the utility of a well-developed doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendment as a response to potentially abusive amendments such as term limit extensions. However, it will also highlight the dependence of such a doctrinal response on particular political conditions that often do not hold throughout Latin America.
  • Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy: South Africa
    Scholars are increasingly taking note of a species of government institutions that fall outside the traditional separation of powers and have come to be known as the “fifth branch“: these institutions are created by constitutional design to engage in independent oversight and investigation of the other branches. Using South Africa as a case study of “fifth branch“ institutions, this chapter dives deeply into the South African cases on corruption (such as the Scorpions litigation, set in its political background) before turning to the more general theme of Chapter 9 institutions in South Africa, then surveying the rise of the fifth branch in constitutional systems around the world. The chapter concludes by evaluating both the value and the limits of the “deep dive“ case study approach to understanding topics in constitutional design.
  • Constitutional Transformation: Hungary
    This chapter uses recent developments in Hungary to examine how the equivalent of political revolution can occur through changes that are, taken individually, in compliance in the constitution but collectively amount to wholesale transformation of the constitutional order. It confronts the question of what limits, if any, exist on constitutional revolutions of this type.