Author: Tom Ginsburg
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Japanese “constitutional” change
The Democratic Party of Japan continues its efforts to transform Japanese political practice toward greater congruence with formal demands of the Constitution. Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa is plotting strategy for a major reform bill, described here, that would reduce the power of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau to appear in the Diet.
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New blogger on the site
I’m pleased to announce that Richard Albert of Boston College Law School has joined our ranks of bloggers. Professor Albert is one of the leading young scholars of comparative constitutional law in the United States. He’s published a number of papers, including an excellent article in the American Journal of Comparative Law on the fusion…
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Constitutional Hotspots for 2010?
I wonder if readers have thoughts on what locations will be likely to experience a constitutional crisis of some kind in 2010. Many of those that have had ongoing difficulties in the past year (Niger, Honduras, Zimbabwe) are likely to continue.
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The Irish SC and Gay Rights
Last week the Irish Supreme Court handed down a significant decision in relation to the rights of gays and lesbians living in Ireland. In McD v. L [2009[ IESC 81, the Supreme Court held that in a dispute over legal guardianship and access, a male biological parents (and sperm donor) was in principle entitled to…
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Observations on Kenya’s Draft Constitution II: the “Birthers” were Right…
…about Barack Obama. Article 17(2) of the Draft provides that “A person born outside Kenya is a citizen if, at the date of the person’s birth, either the mother or the father of the person is a citizen . . .
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Observations on Kenya’s Draft Constitution I
Kenya’s draft constitution is now in a period of public comment. The draft is long—over 300 articles—and is all in all a very impressive piece of work. It features a semi-presidential system, an extensive bill of rights, and significant devolution of power to the local level.
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Honduras vote coming in…
and it looks like the conservatives have won. The crisis, however, is likely not over, with most South American nations continuing to assert that the election results are not to be recognized. From the beginning, the Honduras affair has defied conventional political analysis.
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Ethics for constitutional advisors?
This mornings NY Times reports that Peter Galbraith, advisor to the Kurdish government, was negotiating oil deals on his own behalf while helping to influence Iraq’s constitution-making process. The scale of Galbraith’s prospective gains, upwards of $100 million, are shocking. It is not clear that he had a conflict of interest with regard to Kurdish…
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New report on constitutional treatment of the environment
The Reports section of this website has a new report on constitutional treatment of the environment–look under the “Special Issue Domains” menu under the Reports tab. Constitutional treatment of the environment is a relatively recent phenomenon, but is now found in some 66% of texts.
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Honduras crisis comes to a close
Honduras’ political crisis is coming to an end. Five months after being forced out of the country by the military, Manuel Zelaya will apparently be allowed to resume his term of office. The country’s election scheduled for later this month, in which Zelaya is not a candidate, will proceed as planned.