Author: i_conn_admin
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Albert on Amendments
An article posted on SSRN, written by Richard Albert from Boston College Law School, might be of interest to our readers. Here is the summary: The constitutional text in a constitutional democracy does not necessarily constrain constitutional change. Quite the contrary, constitutional change in a constitutional democracy often occurs in ways that depart from the…
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Constitutional Court Censors German Government
It’s been a tough week for the German government. It was handed defeats by the constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) in two separate cases touching on the government’s authority to withhold information from parliament.In 2006, the German parliament — on an initiative by opposition parties — constituted a parliamentary commission to investigate allegations that the German government…
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Iraq’s Constitutional Review
Iraq’s Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), a body empowered by Art. 142 of the Constitution to do a one-off comprehensive reexamination of Iraq’s Constitution, is set to present its list of proposed amendments to the Iraq Parliament within the next couple of weeks.
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Afghanistan’s Constitutional Opera Continues…
May 22nd marked what should have been the end of President Karzai’s first term as President according to the 2004 constitution. As Tom Ginsburg noted in his March 31 post, the Supreme Court justified the continuation of Karzai’s term until August elections to “ensure national consensus and stability in the country.”
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The Nepali Process — a Victim of Politics
For most of the past three years Nepal has been hailed as a veritable success for its transition from monarchy to democracy, peace process, interim constitution, elections, and formation of a Constituent Assembly (CA). Now with its government collapsed and a total breakdown in the delivery of basic services to the people, Nepal’s constitution-making process…
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In Memoriam: Vivien Hart 1938-2009
Our colleague Vivien Hart, a pioneer in thinking about how the process of making constitutions relates to the consolidation of democracy and human rights, recently passed away. A professor of American studies at the University of Sussex since 1996 and director of the University’s Cunliffe Centre for the Study of Constitutionalism and National Identity since…
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The Danger of Constitutional Deadlines
Alex’s post on the constitutional crisis in Afghanistan — specifically the tension between constitutional deadlines and practical reality — brings to mind similar challenges already encountered by Iraqis as they simultaneously attempt to rebuild a nation, stamp out vestiges of a near civil war, and honor the rule of law.
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Constitutional Crisis in Afghanistan
Kabul: Afghanistan is experiencing a complex constitutional crisis concerning the delay of Presidential elections this year, and a fundamental disagreement over what body, if any, has the authority to interpret the post-Taliban constitution ratified in 2004, available here. The immediate crisis is due to the fact that Article 61 of the 2004 Constitution states that…
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Iraq’s Constitutional Review
For almost two years Iraq’s Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) has been working on a package of constitutional amendments to submit to the Council of Representatives (CoR) and then for popular referendum. This tumultuous process has witnessed highs (the May 23, 2007 interim report that included several substantive amendments that would have fundamentally altered the constitutional…