Category: hp
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Japan’s Supreme Court finds lay participation in criminal trials constitutional
On November 16, 2011 Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that the country’s new “saiban’in” system of citizen participation in serious criminal trials was constitutional. Issued unanimously by all fifteen of the court’s judges sitting en banc as a Grand Bench, this ruling effectively eliminates any constitutional doubts about the system which may have lingered after it…
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Another chapter in Israel’s constitutional wars
It has been a while since we reported here about Israel’s ongoing constitutional (and culture) wars. The right wing government, and in particular members of the governing coalition who represent religious parties, Jewish settlers and nationalist parts of the Russian immigrant community, have long viewed the Supreme Court as a bastion of liberal secularism and…
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Equatorial Guinea heads to polls
Citizens of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea went to the polls today to vote in a referendum on a new constitution. Changes include the imposition of term limits on the president (two seven-year terms in office); the creation of a vice-presidency and Senate; the establishment of economic policy and auditing watchdogs; and an ombudsman.
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Voting underway in Equatorial Guinea
Citizens of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea went to the polls today to vote in a referendum on a new constitution. Changes include the imposition of term limits on the president (two seven-year terms in office); the creation of a vice-presidency and Senate; the establishment of economic policy and auditing watchdogs; and an ombudsman.
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Nathan Brown tells American advisors: “Put Away Your Quills” in the Mideast
Nathan Brown of George Washington has an excellent new post at foreignpolicy.com in which he argues that Americans have little to say to constitution-makers in the Arab world. He is surely right. My own view is that external advisors are best focused on the nitty-gritty issues of drafting, such as making sure the text is…
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Call for Papers on Comparative Law
As Chair of the Younger Comparativists Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law, I am pleased to share with our readers the Call for Papers below. The Call for Papers is directed to comparative law scholars who have been engaged as law teachers, lecturers, fellows or another academic capacity for ten years or fewer…
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The Conservative Consolidation in Canada
As our colleague Ran Hirschl reported earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently filled two vacancies on the Supreme Court of Canada. With those two appointments, four is now the total number of Prime Minister Harper’s Supreme Court nominations since he ascended to power in 2006.
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Libya’s Constitution: Take it Slow
More reflections on the time line currently being considered by Libya’s National Transitional Council and other considerations for the forthcoming constitution making process here: http://www.usip.org/publications/extending-libya-s-transitional-period-capitalizing-the-constitutional-moment
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Libya’s Constitution: Take it Slow
[From the Chicago Tribune] Now that Moammar Gadhafi has fallen, Libya’s victorious revolutionaries should heed Iraq’s missteps as they begin the critical task of political reconstruction, including Iraq’s hurried 2005 constitution-making process. There are as many ways to write a constitution as there are spellings of Gadhafi’s name, and some processes can exacerbate conflict rather…
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New Comparative Public Law Scholarship
As Chair of the Younger Comparativists Committee (YCC) in the American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL), I’m pleased to announce that the YCC will host a panel on “Building Constitutionalism in Post-Authoritarian States” at the ASCL’s Annual Meeting. The panel will feature the work of two younger comparativists: William Partlett’s paper on Making Constitutions Matter; and…