Although Beijing likes to refer to HK as a “domestic“ matter, international law is at the heart of HK‘s constitutional order and must be considered in any attempt to implement Article 23 of HK‘s Basic Law. I begin by reviewing HK‘s status on the UN‘s list of non-self-governing territories, which created a presumption that residents...
Tag: <span>MONDAY 25 June 2018 16:45-18:15</span>
India‘s Third Constitutional Retrogression
The current retrogressive phase marks the 3rd substantial challenge the Indian Constitution has faced. The first arose in the 1970s, when Indira Gandhi‘s government used the Emergency powers under the Constitution to suspend fundamental rights and sought to entrench its powers through an Amendment. The second threat came in the late 1990s, when Vajpayee‘s government...
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...
International human rights law and the protection of refugee women in Asia
Some have questioned the continuing relevance of the 1951 Refugee Convention. International human rights law has expanded rapidly since 1951 and UN human rights treaties and relevant interpretive materials have clarified states‘ obligations to protect refugees and other migrants beyond the confines of the Refugee Convention. As a result, some argue that the broader remit...
Is Immigration a Chance to Rethink Social Citizenship?
One obvious response to the challenges of an ageing population and a lower birth-rate is immigration. Japan now seems to have chosen that path as it is preparing grounds to welcome a wider, economically active foreign population in the near future. In the last couple of years, the government has made some last adjustments to...
Legal Pluralism: Challenging ‘Default Settings‘ in IHR
This paper argues employs the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case of the Bakassi Peninsula (2002) as a lens through which to consider fertile intersections of legal pluralism and human rights, with a focus on two particular issues. First, the challenge of addressing contemporary border disputes that can trace their origins to colonialisation, and; second,...
Labour law for the robots?
Henry Ford II, and the leader of the automobile workers union, Walter Reuther, both saw many examples of advanced machinery operating at the firm. The words they exchanged brilliantly encapsulated the paradox of automation: “Henry Ford II: Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay your union dues? Walter Reuther: Henry, how...
Judicial interpretation in the age of hyper-legislation
This paper will outline the phenomenon of hyper-legislation in an Australian (i.e. federal) context and then consider judicial responses to it. It will do so with particular reference to the principle of legality. That inquiry will consider also the role which the principle may increasingly play to ensure that proper consideration is given in statutes...
Women‘s Human Rights: From Progress to Transformation (An Intersectional Response to Nussbaum)
This article asks ‘the intersectional question‘ about women‘s progress. The purpose is to understand whether the successes of the women‘s movement and women‘s human rights have improved the conditions of women who are disadvantaged not only because of their sex or gender but also disadvantaged by their race, colour, caste, religion, region, disability, age, sexual...
Past, Future, and Present: The New Temporality of Decision-Making Software
Administrative decisions are increasingly co-produced by public officials and specialized software. Draws on “the past,“ as represented by government databases, this software assembles data points to generate decisions about an individual‘s access to public benefits. While such decisions are, in theory, reviewed by a human before taking effect, the technical processes by which they are...