Author: Tom Ginsburg
-
Chinese Constitutionalism Again…
Tom Ginsburg and Mike Dowdle have invited me to respond to Mike’s critique last September in this space of a comment of mine, and I both thank them for the opportunity and apologize for taking so long. In a previous life I was probably a contractor.
-
Japan’s Prosecutors Score a Big Win
UN human rights committees and other international observers have called for major changes to Japan’s interrogation procedures for more than a decade, claiming that extended interrogations without the presence of counsel deny fundamental rights. The most commonly proposed remedy is complete recording of interrogations.
-
Kenya process moves forward…
Kenya’s Parliamentary Select Committee has now returned the draft constitution—heavily modified—to the Committee of Experts for reconsideration. The major change was dropping the semi-presidential system in favor of a pure presidential system with a directly elected president, reflecting demand from the public for greater clarity and clearer channels of accountability.
-
Turkish court ruling
Jurist reports that Turkey’s constitutional court has over-turned a law allowing for civilian prosecution of military personnel in civilian courts. The report describes the law as being a barrier to EU accession, but the real politics are likely domestic: the law was promulgated in part to facilitate investigation of military officials and others who were…
-
Statutes on constitutional amendment procedure?
here is a question from Mongolia, where the parliament is considering drafting a statute on constitutional amendments. Some countries have specific statutes to cover the procedure for proposing and passing an amendment, filling in details not contained in the constitution. Do any readers have examples of such statutes?
-
Is the Japanese Supreme Court spreading its wings?
Last week, the Japanese Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for a municipal government to offer city-owned land without charge for the site of a Shinto shrine. The ruling by the top court’s Grand Bench upheld the contention of the plaintiffs that the municipal government of Sunagawa, Hokkaido had violated the constitutional requirement of…
-
New blogger coming soon: Mark Kende
We have a new blogger coming soon. Mark Kende is the James Madison Chair Professor in Constitutional Law and Director of the Drake University Constitutional Law Center, which was endowed by the U.S. Congress. He is the author of “Constitutional Rights in Two Worlds: South Africa and the United States” (Cambridge Univ.
-
Top ten constitutional events in China
Here’s an interesting one. China’s Prosecutorial Daily has produced a list of the “top ten constitutional events” in 2009. Donald Clarke has kindly translated the list here. It’s a remarkable document in its conception of what counts as constitutional: many of the incidents involve abuse of power by lower level officials.
-
Angola constitution coming soon
Press reports indicate that Angola’s parliament will adopt a new constitution in the new week, extending the rule of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who has served since 1979. The constitution will replace the formally semi-presidential structure with a pure presidential system, replacing the prime minister with a vice president.
-
Kenya process continues
The constitution-making process in Kenya continues apace. The Committee of Experts has now submitted a revised harmonized draft to the parliament, which will then submit the document to a referendum. The revised draft retains the semi-presidential structure of the first draft, which has a directly-elected president and a prime minister.