Tag: constitutional amendment
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150 Years On: What is the Constitution of Canada?–Part 1 of 3–The Problem of Identification
Editor’s Note: Today we begin a three-day series to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation in Canada. In three separate posts, Maxime St-Hilaire, Patrick Baud and Éléna S. Drouin offer critical reflections on a provocative question: What is the Constitution of Canada?
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“Quasi Constitutional” Status as *Not* Implying a Form Requirement
—Maxime St-Hilaire, Faculté de droit, Université de Sherbrooke In his post on this blog, Adam Perry writes that the British cases on what are known in the UK as constitutional statutes (and in Canada as quasi–constitutional statutes) “have been very controversial in constitutional circles”, whereas, by contrast, “the Canadian cases caused barely a ripple.”
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Constitutional Amendments in Georgia: Towards Parliamentarism
—Malkhaz Nakashidze, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Boston College Law School; Assocoate Professor, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University School of Law On December 15, 2016, the Parliament of Georgia created the State Constitutional Commission.[1] The aim of the Commission was to elaborate the Draft law on revision of the Constitution of Georgia in the interest of the long-term democratic development…
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“Constitutional Dismemberment” and Political Crisis in Brazil: Populism in Sight?
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília Jon Elster once wrote that “… the task of constitution-making generally emerges in conditions that are likely to work against good constitution-making.”[1] Passion – as he puts it – prevails over reason in such turbulent circumstances.
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What’s at Stake in the Turkish Constitutional Amendment Proposal
–Ilayda Gunes, The University of Chicago Law School In the wake of the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016, Turkey has been struggling to heal its wounds under a state of emergency. Apart from the loss of hundreds of lives and more than 2,000 injured in clashes during the abortive coup, the country has also…
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The Italian Constitutional Challenge: An Overview of the Upcoming Referendum
—Lorenza Violini, Full Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Milan, and Antonia Baraggia, Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Milan As it is well known, Italy is in the midst of a great constitutional reform, which–if approved by the referendum that will be held on December 4th–will modify 47 Articles of the Constitution (corresponding to 33% of the…
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Preservationist Constitutional Amendments and the Rise of Antipolitics in Brazil
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília Ran Hirschl, in his book Towards Juristocracy, raises a very thorough argument on how political, economic, and judicial elites have strategically used Supreme Courts as “a form of self-interested hegemonic preservation.”[1] As a way of keeping many of their interests virtually untouched for years, especially in democratic and pluralistic…
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Virtual Bookshelf: Understanding Constitutional Change in Canada–A Review of “Constitutional Amendment in Canada,” Edited by Emmett Macfarlane
—Richard Albert, Boston College Law School In his influential though dated study of formal amendment difficulty, Donald Lutz examines the amending procedures for 32 countries and concludes that the United States Constitution is the most difficult to amend.[1] Notwithstanding the all-important questions raised by Tom Ginsburg and James Melton–whether and how much the amending rule matters…
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The Brazilian Constitutional Amendment Rate: A Culture of Change?
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília Tom Ginsburg and James Melton, in their fascinating article “Does the Constitutional Amendment Rule Matter at All? Amendment Cultures and the Challenges of Measuring Amendment Difficulty, raise a powerful argument against the well-worn claim that the number of amendments is directly related to the flexibility of constitutions.[1]
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“De-constitutionalism” in Turkey?
–Dr. Ali Acar, Ph.D. in Law, EUI Can “de-” be a modifier to describe the constitutionalism in a country? [1] This is what Prof. Kemal Gözler, a constitutional law scholar, has termed the current state of constitutionalism in Turkey.[2] He argues that Turkey undergoes a process of de-constitutionalism through various ways and practices of constitutional…