2021 is quickly coming to an end. It has been another challenging year for many of us on multiple fronts, the impact of the global pandemic on our professional and social interactions being just one of them.

Harry HOBBS & George WILLIAMS

There are many ways that citizens express their dissatisfaction with the policies and outcomes delivered by government. One unusual way is to create their own nation as a means of bypassing the constitutional structures and limitations of an existing nation…

Luc HEUSCHLING

From the perspective of foreign observers familiar with republican systems, European monarchies may appear as a strange, yet deliciously old-fashioned subject-matter. A totally different world, made up of pomp, legal intricacies…

Karan GUPTA

Earlier this week, a full Bench of the Botswana Court of Appeals (CoA) in Attorney General v Letsweletse Motshidiemang partly upheld the High Court’s (HC) judgment (analysed here) which decriminalised same-sex relations. Commending the ‘erudite’ and ‘searching’…

Georges BAUR

Liechtenstein is a small-sized country (and has a very small inhabitable area of rural character [Decision of the EEA Council No 1 /95 of 10 March 1995, Declaration on free movement of persons]). As such, it is highly dependent on its relations with its neighbours and beyond…

Peter BUßJÄGER

The Constitution of the Principality of Liechtenstein (Landesverfassung = LV) of 1921 is primarily a further development of the Constitution of 1862, specifically in the context of parliamentary powers and fundamental rights. Its concept of constitutional review…

In comparative constitutional scholarship, there is little discussion of the constitutional arrangements of micro states—as if there were a sort of deterministic relationship between their diminutive size and the interest they generate…

Arvind Kurian ABRAHAM

The landmark judgment of the High Court of Kenya in MW v AN on 14th September, 2021, was lauded for recognizing the value of the housework performed by a housewife and for stating that she should be given a share in the matrimonial property, due to her contribution…

Melissa CROUCH

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court has been crucial to the past two decades of reform and has consolidated the shift from authoritarian rule to constitutional democracy. Yet, it was not until 2008 that the first female judge was appointed and since…

Oumarou NAREY

Dans un État de droit, c’est-à-dire un État qui « agit par le droit et au moyen du droit », il est nécessaire de se tourner vers la justice démocratique, celle qui « n’est pas faite pour satisfaire ses agents, ni pour produire des chiffres destinés à sa hiérarchie, mais pour garantir les droits » . C’est en effet…

Imelda B DEINLA

The fate of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Aranal-Sereno is emblematic of women’s representation in the highest organ of justice in the Philippines. Justice Sereno made history as the first woman – and the youngest - chief magistrate of the Philippine Supreme Court. She was appointed…

Anna DZIEDZIC

Pacific island states are often left out of comparative studies of constitutions, courts and judges. The invitation to contribute a chapter to Melissa Crouch’s edited volume Women and the Judiciary in the Asia-Pacific provided a welcome opportunity to explore an issue of global importance…

Emmanuel Saffa ABDULAI

Sierra Leone is a small country with a population of 7 million people situated on the West African coast. The country is rich in natural resources, but has always lingered at the bottom of the United Nation’s development league tables and is consistently one of the lowest ranked…

Dinesha SAMARARATNE

What does the study of judicial discretion reveal about advancing gender through adjudication? In the Sri Lanka chapter of Women and the Judiciary in the Asia-Pacific, I argue that in jurisdictions of the Global South, this question cannot be limited to a study of inclusivity of women judges…

Melissa CROUCH

This blog symposium showcases the work of several contributors on women in the courts in the Asia-Pacific, drawing on research in the new publication, Women and the Judiciary in the Asia-Pacific (CUP 2021).

While there is a growing literature on women judges in the Global North…

Alexandra TOMASELLI

Chile is currently living in constitutional momentum. A constituent assembly (the so-called, Constitutional Convention, Convención Constitucional) comprising 155 elected delegates began its work on 4 July 2021. On 25 October 2020, a historical referendum…

Dinesha SAMARARATNE

In Part I of this post, I pointed to six points on which academics and more specifically scholars in the field of comparative constitutional law agree in relation to the critique of colonialism and empire. Following from that, I identified five difficulties that we ought to confront…

Marzia ROSTI

The relation between indigenous peoples and the Argentinean state, whose independence was officially proclaimed on 9 July 1816 at the Tucumán Congress, cannot be understood without analyzing its colonial past and the division between the unconquered and free indigenous peoples…

Sonia VEHITO

Pursuant to Article 95 of the CAR Constitution of 2016, the Constitutional Court of the Central African Republic (CAR) is required to resolve electoral disputes and guarantee the regularity of electoral operations, which includes the validations of national and local elections. On 12 August 2021…

Joy Monserrat Ochoa MARTÍNEZ & Roberto Niembro ORTEGA

Last month, the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice issued three landmark rulings that constitute an important milestone for sexual and reproductive rights in Mexico. These three rulings provided the most comprehensive constitutional framework of protection for the right to legal abortion…