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...
Tag: <span>TUESDAY JUNE 26 2018 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM</span>
Commentary on the book
The commentator will discuss Parliament’s Secret War inquiry of the constitutional convention, which is celebrated as representing a redistribution of power from the executive towards a more legitimate, democratic institution. It will address a number of persistent problems revealed by the book, including Parliament’s lack of access to relevant information, government ‘legalisation’ of parliamentary debates...
Constitution-making at times of war: Lessons from Libya, Yemen and Syria
Over the past three decades, constitution-making has emerged as a key tool in peace-building processes. Scholarly debates highlight several preferences on the tension/articulation between peace-making and constitution. However, little attention has been paid to a sub-category of constitution-making in the context of violent conflicts: constitution-drafting at times of war. This paper attempts a tentative analysis...
Constitutional Deliberation in the Legislative Process
This paper considers how constitutional norms structure legislative deliberation. Its authors argue that the fact that legislators are ‘“responsible constitutional actors“ places them under an obligation … to deliberate about … constitutional rules when deciding whether to pass legislation‘. However, a complication is that some such rules are not judicially enforceable and may also be...
Constitutional Duties
The idea that citizens possess duties, in addition to rights, appears to be growing in popularity. As we are witnessing a growing backlash against the liberal constitutional model that heavily emphasizes individual rights, religious and conservative voices are calling for an emphasis on individual duties and responsibilities. This Article shows that duties for individuals have...
Constitutional History and Constitutional Migration: Nepal
This chapter examines the uneasy relationship between indigenous constitutionalism and global norms in the specific jurisdictional context of Nepal, which is unusual within South Asia for having escaped colonialism and having a wealth of uninterrupted local tradition and custom on which to construct its constitutional system. This unusual level of historical continuity in the process...
Constitutional Identity in Israel: Proposed Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People
The paper article focuses on the definition of Israel as a Jewish state. It argues that while the debate on the Jewishness of the state has focused, for many years, on questions of religion and state, in recent years the focus has shifted from religion to nationalism, in a manner that makes it difficult to...
Constitutional reform and the rule of law. Challenging democracy in times of crisis. A comparative study of the Greek and the Italian cases.
The paper considers the attempts recently made both in Greece and in Italy to amend the Fundamental Charters and their relation with the wider context given by the economic crisis and the emerging challenges to the rule of law. The comparative approach allows to detect similarities between the two cases and to envisage possible solutions...
Constitutional Review without Constitutionalism? Prospects and Limitations of a Constitutional Review Mechanism in China
The Chinese Communist Party has decided to “strengthen oversight to ensure compliance with the Constitution“, and, for the first time, “advance constitutionality review“. However, “constitutionalism“ has been branded “western“, “capitalistic“, and even become a taboo since 2012. The paper summarizes the recent official blueprint and scholarly proposals, trying to envisage the future picture of the...
Constitutional vs Statutory Bills of Rights with Weak-Form Judicial Review
Weak-form judicial review allows legislatures to override judicial decisions on rights through the ordinary lawmaking process. It can be incorporated into a bill of rights that is constitutionally entrenched, as with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or an unentrenched statute, as with the NZ Bill of Rights Act and UK Human Rights Act....