Category: Analysis
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Special Undergraduate Series–COVID-19: The Indian Supreme Court’s Abdication of Constitutional Duty
Special Series: Perspectives from Undergraduate Law StudentsLL.B. Student Contribution —Prannv Dhawan, National Law School of India University, and Anmol Jain, National Law University, Jodhpur Judicial restraint is necessary in dealing with the powers of another co-ordinate bench of the government; but restraint cannot imply abdication of the responsibility of walking on that edge.
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Pandemic and States of Emergency: A Comparative Perspective
–Alejandro Cortés-Arbeláez, Universidad El Bosque[1] In recent constitutional debates there has been an ongoing discussion about the use and abuse of states of emergency as a tool for implementing drastic measures in order to stop, or at least slow down, the pandemic of the new coronavirus SARS-COV2, which causes the COVID-19 disease.
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We Teach and Learn Online. Are We All Digital Citizens Now? Lessons on Digital Citizenship from the Lockdown
—Sofia Ranchordas, University of Groningen [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] Over the past several decades, public administrations, universities, and schools have been debating whether and how to automate administrative procedures and invest in remote learning and working.
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Hercules Leaves (But Does Not Abandon) the Forum of Principle: Courts, Judicial Review, and COVID-19
—Vicente F. Benítez R., JSD candidate at NYU School of Law and Constitutional Law Professor at Universidad de La Sabana* Introduction Several analysts have warned about the sudden concentration of power in the hands of chief executives in the wake of the COVID-19 situation.
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Are Quebec and Canada having a “Schmittian” (or Iheringian) moment?
—Maxime St-Hilaire, University of Sherbrooke, Faculty of Law On June 16, 2019, the Quebec legislature invoked Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in order to suspend, with regards to the Act respecting the laicity (secularism)of the State (ALS) that it was passing, all constitutional rights and freedoms which this section permits.
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Human Rights in Africa in the Context of Covid-19
–Sean Molloy, Research Associate, Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University In response to Covid-19, countries across Africa are declaring a state of emergency (these include Botswana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Botswana, Ethiopia and Senegal, to name a few). Doing so allows the authorities, in times of urgent necessity, to take actions necessary to safeguard national security, maintain…
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Lies in the Time of Corona: Attempts to Inoculate Truth from a Pandemic
—Andrea Scoseria Katz, NYU School of Law [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] The problem with lying in politics, the philosopher Hannah Arendt once pointed out, isn’t that people start to take the lies seriously, but rather that “nobody…
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Special Undergraduate Series–The Rot Runs Deeper: Citizenship at Odds with Religion
Special Series: Perspectives from Undergraduate Law StudentsLL.B. Student Contribution –Anant Sangal, IV Year, B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), National Law University, Delhi In the first half of December 2019, the Indian Parliament passed a discriminatory legislation, which provides citizenship to a class of people on the basis of their religion.
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Redefining the Right to Privacy in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic
—Dr. Olga Hałub-Kowalczyk, Chair of Constitutional Law, Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics, University of Wrocław, Poland Nobody needs to be convinced of the direct impact on human rights flowing from the pandemic induced by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The necessity of reorganizing the state and way it works goes hand in hand with sudden changes…
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Dissenting from the Venice Commission on Dissenting Opinions
—Maxime Saint-Hilaire, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada & Léonid Sirota, AUT University, New Zealand The topic of separate – concurring or dissenting – judicial opinions is sure to generate attention, and some controversy. There is a substantial academic literature on the subject, to which judges have often contributed, but discussion of judicial expressions of disagreement with…