Blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law

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Category: Azerbaijan

  • Keeping up with the Obiangs: Theft and Hereditary Succession in Dictatorships

    According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “kleptocracy” was first introduced into the English language in 1819 as a contemporary criticism of the Imperial Spanish Government. Perhaps it is fitting then that the leadership of tiny Equatorial Guinea – one of Spain’s former colonies – is doing so much to keep this particular colonial…

  • Azerbaijani Conscription – Update

    In the Spring of last year I wrote a piece for this forum exploring a constitutionally dubious Azerbaijani mechanism requiring universal military service for young men on the one hand (punishable by imprisonment), while at the same time maintaining a legally unenforceable constitutional “right for alternative service” on the other – as a cover providing…

  • Mandatory Military Service and Broken Promises in Azerbaijan: The Case of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev

    Last week, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev spent his 29th birthday in an Azeri jail for the crime of refusing military service. At present he has remained incarcerated for more than a month. In Azerbaijan, a country where extralegal detentions and human rights abuses are tragically normal, this particular arrest has caused a stir in the international media…