September 14, 2017

Symposium: Access to Justice for Socio-Economic Rights — Lessons from the Indian Experience

September 14, 2017/ Tom Daly

Surya Deva

Professor David Bilchitz in a recent blog considered obstacles concerning access to justice for litigating socio-economic rights in South Africa and potential solutions to overcome these obstacles. He argued that South Africa should (i) empower individuals to enable them to make claims and (ii) expand its current model of dividing labour between courts and other non-judicial institutions to hear cases related to socio-economic rights.

September 11, 2017

Slovak Parliament has Abolished Presidential Amnesties: A Brief Outline of the Story. Is there a Happy Ending?

September 11, 2017/ Tom Daly

Marek Domin

The first half of 2017 saw several developments in Slovak constitutional law. Among other things there were three direct constitutional amendments and two fundamental decisions of the Constitutional Court. However, the most important development would undoubtedly be the success of a several years of effort to find legal solution to the problems posed by the so-called Mečiar’s amnesties. In the following post I will briefly summarize this issue, which undoubtedly goes beyond Slovak borders

September 05, 2017

Dual citizenship and eligibility to serve as a member of Parliament – the evolving story in Australia

September 05, 2017/ Tom Daly

Elisa Arcioni & Helen Irving

A recent drama concerning the citizenship status of seven members of the Australian Parliament has drawn attention to the complex legal landscape surrounding multiple nationality, as well as the specific meaning of a provision of the Australian Constitution that governs eligibility to stand for, or serve in, the Australian Parliament.

August 27, 2017

New horizons for the policymaker after the Commission’s decision on Google?

August 27, 2017/ Tom Daly

Giovanna De Minico

In June the European Commission levied a €2.42 billion fine against Google for breaching EU antitrust law. In addition, the Commission ordered Google to give equal treatment to rival shopping services. While the full decision of the Commission is yet to be published, this post considers the strength of the case against Google and its significance for the future.

August 23, 2017

Funding for abortions for Northern Ireland Women in England

August 23, 2017/ Tom Daly

Stephanie Palmer

Should women from Northern Ireland have access to free National Health Service (NHS)-funded abortions in England? This was the issue addressed by the Supreme Court in R (on the application of A and B) v Secretary of State for Health. This decision raises important constitutional and human rights issues concerning the nature of devolution and the equality of women. In a disappointing decision, the Court found that the Secretary of State was not compelled by statute to exercise his discretion to fund women from Northern Ireland who seek abortion services in England.

August 11, 2017

What’s wrong with Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly?

August 11, 2017/ Tom Daly

William Partlett

Venezuela is currently undergoing a political and constitutional crisis. The recent election of a new Constituent Assembly has drawn international condemnation and accusations of fraud and vote rigging, and is seen by many as an attempt by President Nicolas Maduro to strengthen his grip on power.

August 10, 2017

Symposium: Towards a Constitutionalism of the Wretched — Global Constitutionalism, International Law and the Global South

August 10, 2017/ Tom Daly

Vidya Kumar

The field of Global Constitutionalism (also sometimes called “International Constitutionalism”) is a very odd field, one which, with very limited exceptions (Frankenberg, Schwöbel, and Volk), has been neglected by most critical international and constitutional law scholars. One reason it is an oddity is because of its disciplinary hybridity. That is to say, it is neither fish nor fowl – it is neither fully a discipline of comparative constitutionalism nor is it fully a discipline of international law.

August 09, 2017

Analysis: Latest Developments in the South African Court’s Most Expansive Socio-Economic Rights Doctrine — The Need for Meaningful Engagement about Meaningful Engagement

August 09, 2017/ Tom Daly

James Fowkes

South Africa’s socio-economic rights jurisprudence has a reputation for restraint, at least when compared to the boldest jurisdictions like India or Colombia. This relative judgement is accurate. But it should not obscure recognition of how far-reaching the Court’s quieter approach can sometimes be – especially when the approach is not embodied in one big-name judgment like Grootboom and so is harder for comparative scholars to detect.

August 03, 2017

Symposium: Expanding Access to Justice for Socio-Economic Rights Complaints in South Africa — Which Direction Should We Head In?

August 03, 2017/ Tom Daly

David Bilchitz

The South African constitution has been lauded for its inclusion of justiciable socio-economic rights. Yet, making claims flowing from these rights remains inaccessible to many people across the country. This blog post (based on a paper being presented at a conference in Berlin on Constitutionalism in the Global South) seeks to consider the obstacles relating to access to justice for socio-economic rights claims in South Africa and potential solutions.

July 27, 2017

Symposium: Conceptualizing Authoritarian Constitutionalism — A Latin American View

July 27, 2017/ Tom Daly

Roberto Niembro

Authoritarian constitutionalism is a new category used by constitutional law scholars to refer to a distinct type of regime wherein there are faulty practices and a constitution with an authoritarian content. With these characteristics in mind it seems contradictory to talk about “constitutionalism”. In this post I introduce a different understanding of authoritarian constitutionalism.

2017 Posts