Category: hp
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Comparative Constitutional Law Events at the 2010 AALS Annual Meeting
I am looking forward to attending the 2010 AALS Annual Meeting, held this year in New Orleans, starting today, January 6, and running until Sunday, January 10. For the convenience of readers, I have taken a moment to look through the program to highlight the comparative constitutional law events on offer at the AALS.
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Indo-Pakistani Constitutional Convergence?
The distinctions in constitutional structure between India and Pakistan—not to mention their differences in political culture—are as sharp as they are numerous. To name but a few, India is a federal state tending toward decentralization in a parliamentary system whose constitution proclaims its commitment to secular democracy.
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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 ECHR and ethnic discrimination in the Bosnia and Herzegovina constitution
The European Court of Human Rights had a holiday gift for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s smaller minority groups today. The story is widely reported; Deutsche Welle has coverage here. The court ruled that provisions of the country’s post-conflict constitution are discriminatory in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
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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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The Church and Constitutional Fidelity
Nearly a month ago, the Wall Street Journal carried an interesting story on the role of the Catholic Church in the Honduran constitutional crisis. The Church, as it turns out, supported the coup (a highly contested word in this context, I know) for which they received a fair amount of criticism from Zelayistas.
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Addendum to Iraq’s Election Quandary
The Speaker of Iraq’s Parliament acknowledge today the inevitability of a “constitutional and legislative vacuum” as a result of the unavoidable gap between the end of the current Parliament’s legislative term and the time before elections can be conducted and a new Parliament and government formed — about two months by the Speaker’s estimation.
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The Election Law Passed But Iraq Still Stands To Miss a Constitutional Dead Line
The impasse over Iraq’s election law has now caused United Nations officials to publicly admit what many have feared for weeks — Iraq is going to miss its constitutionally mandated deadline for parliamentary elections. Delays this past summer and fall were do to two key disagreements among Iraqi law-makers: (1) whether to have open or…
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A constitutional conundrum in Fiji
There have been three coups in Fiji since independence. There have been two since the latest Constitution was enacted in 1997, following a respectable local constitution-making process. The Constitution was reinstated after the first of these, in a remarkably docile response to a judicial decision that it had not effectively been abrogated.
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The ECHR and the new Swiss constitutional ban on minarets
The decision by Swiss voters, by a 57.5% margin, to ratify a constitutional amendment backed by nationalist parties that bans the construction of new minarets is not a proud moment for Switzerland. It is hard to see what motivation could lie behind popular ratification of the amendment except old-fashioned religious prejudice.