Search

What types of institutional dynamics and conditions allow constitutional resilience in the face of attempts at undermining gains in a constitutional democracy? Using Sri Lanka as a case-study, I claim that the legal complex acting in synergy with independent public institutions (the Speaker of the Parliament) and civil society can produce constitutional resilience. Synergy between the legal complex and these institutions can transform constitutional vulnerability into constitutional resilience. I argue therefore that the legal complex theory must be extended to consider the ways in which it can work in synergy with other public institutions in being resilient against attempts at rolling back gains for constitutional democracy. I argue further that synergy between the legal complex and formal and informal institutions over the short term can only result in “simple” constitutional resilience. The development of “reflexive” constitutional resilience requires long-term synergy between the legal complex and other public institutions.

Brazil descended into a major political crisis after the 2013 mass demonstrations against electoral corruption and failure to fulfil constitutional obligations related to social and economic rights. This turmoil destabilized the political establishment and severely impacted the behaviour of legal institutions. The use of political mandates and institutional prerogatives, contrary to established social norms and traditional interpretations of the law, became unexceptional. In this article, Operation Car Wash, the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, and the process to save the mandate of her successor, President Michel Temer, are analysed as successive examples of ‘constitutional hardball’ that dominated Brazilian political and institutional life, leading the country to a period of ‘constitutional malaise’ or ‘constitutional regression.’ The main objective of the article is to understand the impact of this cycle of institutional retaliations, rooted in the clash between the political and legal establishments (represented by Operation Car Wash), on the stability of Brazilian constitutional democracy.

The subject. An attempt is made to analyze the evolution of the relationship between the Russian Presidents and local self-government in modern Russia over the past 30 years.The methodology of the research is based on the application of the historical method and the method of comparative legal analysis of normative legal acts of the Russian Federation of different years.The purpose of the article is to confirm or dispute hypothesis that the President's relations with local self-government developed non-linearly and contradictory on the different stages.The main results, scope of application. The paper examines the dynamics of the relationship between the Russian Presidents and local self-government, determines the five stages of the development of such relations and their characteristic features, as well as the prospects for these relations after the adoption of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 2020.Stage 1. The absence of specific regulatory legal provisions on the participation of the President in local self-government issues and the actual practice of their interaction (July 1991 – October 1993).Stage 2. Arbitrary or authoritarian President’s participation in local self-government issues (October 1993 – August 1995). This stage is connected with the period of the constitutional crisis of 1993 and is characterized, first of all, by two decrees of the Russian President directly changing the provisions of the Law of the Russian Federation on Local Self-Government of 1991.Stage 3. Bringing the powers of the President in the field of local self-government in accordance with the Russian Constitution of 1993, the approval by the President of the main directions of state policy in the field of local self – government development in the Russian Federation, the creation of the Council for Local Self-Government under the President of the Russian Federation (August 1995 – August 2000).Stage 4. Strengthening the role of the President in the field of local self-government. The beginning of this stage is connected with the coming to power of the new Russian President (August 2000 – July 2020). So far, this is the longest stage in our chronology. This stage is characterized by additional regulation by the President of certain point issues in the field of organization and implementation of local self-government, directly provided for by federal law. Stage 5. The integration of local self-government bodies into a single system of public power and the receipt by the Russian President of hidden, virtually unlimited powers in the field of local self-government (from July 2020 to the present). The starting point of this stage was the adoption of amendments to the Russian Constitution in 2020.Conclusions. The interaction between the Russian President and local self-government developed in a zigzag pattern: from the complete absence of contacts to the direct intervention of the Russian President in the legal regulation of relations in the field of local self– government, violating and actually canceling the legislative regulation of these relations in 1993-1995. From bringing these relations into line with the Russian Constitution of 1993, which proclaimed the organizational independence of local self-government, to strengthening the role of the Russian President and regulating certain issues in the field of organization and implementation of local self-government. The expansion of the powers of the Russian President in connection with the amendments to the Russian Constitution in 2020 actually means an aside from the organizational independence of local self-government and the integration of local self-government bodies into a single system of public authorities. In this regard, the question arises: do the above amendments mean an actual return to the second stage of the development of relations between the Russian President and local selfgovernment in the period of 1993-1995, when the use of "hidden (implied)" powers of the President was allowed, and, consequently, theoretically unlimited participation of the Russian President in local self-government issues?

The article provides an analysis of the powers of the President of the Republic of Poland, which may have an impact on counteracting and moderating constitutional crises and constitutional rot. It aims to describe the potential actions that the head of state may take in a constitutional crisis to restore the stabilization of the state and the constitutional order with its values. The study also includes a reflection on the influence of the style of the presidency on the effectiveness of arbitration.

This article presents a comparative analysis of solving the issue of Orthodox clergy's participation in elections, political parties and public bodies previously and in modern times from the standpoint of secular and church law. At different stages of history, there were both times when the clergy took active part in the legislative bodies of our country and abstained from it. The relevance of this question is conditioned by the following fact: while the Church is unified and its establishments are inviolable, there are historically many states of many types, and the relations between them should always be adjusted specifically to each case. There is no general theoretical formula that would suit them all. The clergy participated in political parties, elections and the State Duma before the revolution, but the results of this participation were very mixed. In the post-Soviet years, after the constitutional crisis of October 1993, the Church made the only right decision. At an expanded session on October 8, 1993, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted a resolution that instructed clergy to refrain from participating in the elections to the Federal Assembly as candidates for deputy, and to abstain from membership in political parties under the penalty of prosecution. As for the Church law, the canons of the Orthodox Church do not permit clergymen to hold secular positions of authority. This is confirmed by the Apostolic Rules and decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. Adopted in 2000 by the Jubilee Council of Bishops, “The Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church” reflected the official position of the Moscow Patriarchate in its relations with the state and secular society . The Fundamentals formulate a concept of the state-church relations, the key concept of which is “the cooperation between state and church”. However, by prohibiting the clergy to participate in government bodies, the Church emphasizes its another resource: the participation of Orthodox laymen in the activities of government bodies and parties. The contemporary challenges include an enormous increase in the influence of the Internet, mass media, the ethical problems of modern technology, the lack of an Orthodox component in educational programs — they are only a few problems and challenges to the dialogue between church and state.

It has long been argued that federal countries, especially those with strong subnational taxing powers, might face difficulty in implementing a federal value-added tax (VAT) because of coordination issues involved, and therefore might be reluctant to adopt one. This article provides insights on how VAT structures are evolving in federal systems, where different tiers of government have separate (and sometimes overlapping) taxation powers. While the author focuses mainly on India's recently enacted goods and services tax (GST), he also offers a comparative perspective, with reference to the GST/VAT systems in Canada, Brazil, and the European Union, thus adding to the hitherto limited body of scholarly work on VAT coordination in federal jurisdictions. The GST is arguably India's biggest tax reform in several decades. Introduced primarily to create a unified national market and bring an end to tax wars and economic distortions, the tax reform's chief slogan was "GST—one-nation-one-tax-one-market." This article takes a closer look at a unique institutional design feature of the Indian GST—a centre-state body called the GST council. What makes this body unique is that it is envisaged as functioning on the principles of cooperative federalism. But can a concurrent tax system, whose very survival is based on cooperative federalism, guarantee a unified national market? If yes, for how long? The author highlights the role of the GST council in market integration and explains why the council has succeeded on several fronts while failing on others. He also addresses an unresolved constitutional issue that could affect the GST council's ability to function as the fulcrum for cooperative federalism—namely, the question of whether its decisions are binding. The uncertainty surrounding this issue could lead to a constitutional crisis if one or more states decide to opt out. The author discusses four possible ways to deal with this impending crisis.

The article is devoted to the study of the grounds and procedure for termination of a judge's powers of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine as a constituent of ensuring its independence. The article aims to establish the reasons for the insufficient level of ensuring the independence of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in terms of failure to comply with the current legislation on termination of powers of judges of the Constitutional Court and suggest recommendations to overcome defined problems. A set of methods was used for the study, such as: 1) a formal legal analysis of the texts of regulatory legal acts; 2) the historical and historical-legal analysis actualized and compared problems related to the independence of judges of the Constitutional Court during the events of 2008, 2010, 2014, and 2020-2021; 3) the comparative-legal method was used to compare the legal regulation of constitutional review bodies in several post-Soviet states with the transitional nature of legal and public administration systems; 4) the formal and dogmatic method allowed us to conclude the content of legal regulation for termination of powers of a judge of the Constitutional Court and changes in such regulation underwent during the existence of constitutional jurisdiction in Ukraine; 5) the systematic method defined the forms of interaction between legal institutions, in particular, the institution of removal from office in criminal proceedings and the institution of independence of judges of the Constitutional Court. As a research result, we described the key problems in the practice of termination of powers of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and suggested recommendations to solve defined problems. The value of this article, first of all, is due to the study of events in the Constitutional Court during 2008, 2010, 2014, and 2020-2021.

Permanent private secretaries to the monarch are not elected, nor are they chosen on civil service criteria. They also have no formal legal training, despite the fact that their advice can be vital during constitutional crises. We test Ivor Jennings's claim that private secretaries serve as ‘irresponsible advisers’ to the Crown, who may have influence in political disputes, and whether that influence may serve political interests. Four case studies include the Home Rule crisis, 1910–14; Edward VIII's abdication; the election of 1950; and the dismissal of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975.

The article studies the constitutional conflicts in terms of theory and practice of modern Ukrainian constitutionalism. The factors are determined, which are conditional for the existence of conflicting relationships in the constitutionalism. It is determined that the scientific and practical paradigm of constitutional conflict in terms of modern constitutionalism theory and practice includes: the general theoretical bases of constitutional conflict (concepts, nature, features, functions, causes, structure, consequences of constitutional conflicts, etc.); the concept of constitutional conflict management (constitutional conflicts prevention (precaution), constitutional conflicts analysis, resolution of constitutional conflicts). It is proved that the constitutional conflicts in essence are the violation of relationships and exacerbation of contradictions at the institutional and regulatory level of the constitutional system - between public authorities; between public institutions and other subjects of constitutional legal relations; as well as between the constitutions de facto and de jure. These conflicts prevention and resolution requires improving the functional level of the modern constitutionalism (in particular, check-and-balance system, constitutional responsibility institution, constitutional control, constitutional legislation, etc.). In substance, the constitutional conflict is expressed in confrontation of constitutional legal relations subjects over constitutional values, principles and regulations or other constitutional legal relations objects, which may be caused by contortions of constitutional legal consciousness or inefficiency of constitutional legislation (legal framework of modern constitutionalism); conditioned by social activity of the constitutional legal relations subjects. The constitutional conflicts classification is analyzed with a focus on the constitutional crisis characteristics. Particular attention is paid to the prevention analysis of the constitutional conflicts in the modern Ukrainian constitutionalism.

The purpose of this article is to identify possible ways out of the complicated political situation associated with the constitutional crisis of 1993 in Russia based on the analysis of the transcript of the meeting of the seventeenth extraordinary session of the Moscow city Council (the Council). Based on previously unpublished archival materials, the author reveals the main options for overcoming the constitutional crisis of 1993, which were proposed by the deputies of the Moscow city Council. The study of archival material found that the deputies proposed all possible scenarios for the development of the situation, from radical to mutually acceptable.

espanolAunque no existe en los Estados Unidos una clausula similar a nuestro art. 155 o al art. 37 de la Ley Fundamental de Bonn, la intervencion federal ha encontrado una fuente de legitimidad tanto en la Constitucion de los Estados Unidos como en las leyes que la desarrollan. No obstante, el alcance de las normas referentes a la intervencion federal solo puede comprenderse desde las narrativas que las situan y las dotan de sentido. El proposito de este trabajo es, precisamente, hacer un recorrido historico por la regulacion y la aplicacion de la intervencion federal en Estados Unidos, desde la aprobacion de la Constitucion hasta nuestros dias. Como podra verse, la coercion federal en momentos criticos ha sido decisiva para el desarrollo de una autentica identidad nacional americana. EnglishAlthough a Constitutional clause similar to our article 155 or to article 37 Bonn Basic Law does not exist in the United States, federal intervention has found a source of legitimacy both in the United States Constitution and in the statutes developing it. However, the scope of the provisions regarding federal intervention can only be understood through the narratives that place them and provide them with meaning. The purpose of this article is precisely to explain the historical development of the norms regarding federal intervention and their application in the United States, from the ratification of the Constitution to our days. As will be seen, federal coercion in critical moments has been decisive for the development of a true American national identity.

This Article examines changes in dissent patterns that occurred on the Polish Constitutional Tribunal during a period of intense constitutional and political change in Poland. An analysis of these dissents shows judges only rarely used this opportunity to express the traditional differences of opinion on law or policy. Instead, judges on the Tribunal increasingly used dissents in an altogether new form – as a way to broadcast allegations of legal and procedural violations that occurred within the court’s operation itself. More troublingly, some judges also used their dissents to advance distinctly political narratives and overtly attempt to de-legitimize the court’s announced decisions. Ultimately, these dissents show that constitutional judges may not be immune to participating in the larger social and constitutional battles within society. In fact, these dissent patterns suggest that, in a more fragmented and polarized era of politics, judges can and have made use of the dissent as a way to broadcast distinctly political messages.

In 2015 Europe’s refugee protection crisis triggered the effective collapse of the world’s most complex regional framework for asylum. A development both unexpected and unexplained by the hierarchical model of European asylum law that tends to dominate the scholarly field. The abandonment among member states of core obligations under international and EU law and the principles of solidarity and good faith is central to this crisis. This dynamic has been in the making since the accession process when EU membership was offered in exchange for transposing international obligations through the EU asylum acquis, collectivizing external border control and shifting refugee ‘responsibility’ to new member states with minimal standards for refugee protection and weak enforcement mechanisms. Yet, the critical feature of this asylum crisis is its development into a European constitutional crisis, impacting freedom of movement, sincere co-operation, democracy, and the rule of law. A hierarchical model of law offers only a partial explanation of this interplay between refugee protection and European governance. A turn to the methodological debates in international law urges the repositioning of the lens of refugee legal scholarship, offering insights into the evolution towards crisis by looking at law from below against the backdrop of law in history, subregional law-making, and shifting power constellations. This process suggests that refugee law scholarship could benefit from widening its methodological canon by visiting its parent field of public international law.

A widespread response to the pressures placed on the ecological condition of rivers is the design and implementation of environmental flow regimes in domestic regulatory frameworks for water. Environmental interests in water are not confined to hydrological functioning but include relationships between water resources and human cultural and economic livelihoods, including those of Indigenous communities. Since the mid-1980s there has been some provision for environmental flows in Chilean law. However, the legal and policy requirements are limited in scope and have been poorly implemented by regulatory institutions. In this article we critically examine the treatment of environmental flows in Chilean legal and policy frameworks. We argue that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive minimum flow regime in Chile to protect the environmental qualities of rivers, which must also reflect and provide for Indigenous water rights and interests. The developing constitutional crisis in Chile, the most significant political crisis since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–90), highlights the need to revisit the sensitive and unresolved issues of water governance and equity.

Has Brexit triggered a constitutional crisis? Crisis is one of a family of concepts, including tipping points, catastrophic equilibrium and failure, identifying it as a decisive moment for overcomi...

This article describes the efforts made by the Israeli government to contain the spread of COVID-19, which were implemented amidst a constitutional crisis and a yearlong electoral impasse, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was awaiting a trial for charges of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust. It thereafter draws on the disproportionate policy perspective to ascertain the ideas and sensitivities that placed key policy responses on trajectories which prioritized differential policy responses over general, nation-wide solutions (and vice versa), even though data in the public domain supported the selection of opposing policy solutions on epidemiological or social welfare grounds. The article also gauges the consequences and implications of the policy choices made in the fight against COVID-19 for the disproportionate policy perspective. It argues that Prime Minister Netanyahu employed disproportionate policy responses both at the rhetorical level and on the ground in the fight against COVID-19; that during the crisis, Netanyahu enjoyed wide political leeway to employ disproportionate policy responses, and the general public exhibited a willingness to tolerate this; and (iii) that ascertaining the occurrence of disproportionate policy responses is not solely a matter of perception.

Section 10 is one of the most cited portions of Nigeria’s 1999 constitution believed to be raising contentious issues regarding whether the country is religious or nonreligious. First, the section ...

Many developments, like greater domestic turmoil, economic dislocation, social immobility, and political gridlock, suggest "the public" and "the private" are different domains with the US than they were decades ago in 1969 when President Nixon entered office. The constitutional state, as a theory and set of practices in the USA in the Nixon era was put under tremendous strains, and it seems clear that those pressures fractured it. After Vietnam, stagflation, Watergate, and the transitional Ford Administration, has it ever been the same? The Reagan-Bush assault on the New Deal and Great Society as well as the essentially permanent mobilization for war in the Middle East since 1991 all should force us to conduct a radical check-up of the body politic, and ask if The Constitution is, in fact, the nation's benchmark for foundational law. This paper argues that major political and cultural shifts within the USA, as it has faced these new challenges since the 1970s that have been both domestic and global in nature, suggest that its 1787 Constitution no longer organically underpins the nation's dominant modes of the governance, principles of sovereignty, or notions of political legitimacy, as they have been expressed since 1969 or 2001 in the larger New World Order organized in Washington, D.C.

The EU succeeded many things by bringing and sustaining peace, stability and prosperity to the old and exhausted continent after the II. World War. The EU achieved this by first starting with economic collaboration but over time, it has enlarged and deepened by penetrating to political and social lives of the member countries. However, the presence of the EU has been tested since it was established and EU has overcome the crises. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the EU has experienced many crises such as constitutional crisis, economic crisis, migration crisis, Brexit and now coronavirus crisis. The concepts of “solidarity”, “unity in diversity” and “free movement” which are components of values and achievements have also been tested and questioned. In this research, it is questioned how the coronavirus crisis affects the values and achievements of the EU. This crisis can be a war of existence for the EU itself and its values. It is obvious that the states will take a major blow in this crisis but the EU will be facing with more. Even if it is not easy to see what will happen when the crisis is over it is clear that many things will change.

During the last four years the situation in Poland has been a matter of interest to the worldwide legal community mostly due to the constitutional crisis. Yet, the years 2015–2019 were also a time of a revival of transitional justice measures, such as cleansing the public sphere of communist symbols, remodelling of lustration law, and further reduction of pensions of communist secret service employees and officers. In this paper I argue that these spheres are interconnected and that Poland’s constitutional crisis has a transitional justice dimension. I start with an overview of retrospective instruments dealing with the communist past introduced in the last four years. Next, I turn to the constitutional crisis itself, discussing its possible explanations and transitional justice aspects. In the end I claim that the dramatic constitutional backsliding that Poland has recently experienced can be explained not only as a power grab, but also as a result of the tension between the rule of law and the principle of individual responsibility on one hand – and the resort to collective accountability in an attempt to get what the government sees as justice on the other.

This article analyses the 2019 local, regional, European and April general elections in Spain. The constitutional crisis in Catalonia in 2017, the motion of no-confidence leading to the new Socialist government and the emergence of a radical right-wing party, VOX, all led to Spanish politics becoming more polarised. This paper also discusses polarisation from both the left-right and the territorial perspectives, intimately linked in Spain both for historical reasons but also because of agency decisions during the period analysed. Finally, the article shows the electoral results, government formation processes and political implications of polarisation in a non-institutionalised party system

Global climate change, migration waves, Brexit, Trump’s presidency, the politics of Putin’s Russia, the narrow-minded technocratic executive leadership of the EU, and the constitutional crisis in Spain, present old, reborn, and new challenges to the integrative and cohesive forces of the diversity and openness of Europe. The current autocratic breakthroughs in Hungary and Poland are part of these phenomena. This introductory article focuses on the common preconditions of autocratic breakthroughs, especially on the uncertainties, anxieties and fears rooted in unprocessed traumatic experiences. They have created the possibility of pitting the case of the community against the case of liberty, producing powder-kegs of political hysteria in which the political language of national egotism and regimes of memory strongly connect with each other.

Resumen Este artículo analiza la crisis constitucional gatillada en Chile a partir de los eventos del 18 de octubre de 2019. El propósito es explicar el vínculo que existe entre la constitución y el malestar social que gatilló la crisis y explorar si un proceso constituyente, como el que se ha diseñado en Chile, tiene el potencial para superarla. Esto último se hace a partir de la fallida experiencia del proceso constituyente de Bachelet y de los procesos reformistas latinoamericanos de los últimos treinta años, los que sirven para ilustrar las amenazas y los desafíos del futuro constituyente chileno.

The decade of centenaries celebrated in Ireland since 2012 has led to the publication of many new scholarly works re-examining the Home Rule crisis of 1912-1914, the Irish Parliamentary Party and the figure of John Redmond. James Doherty’s Irish Liberty, British Democracy is part of this still ongoing effort to shed new light on Irish political history and Anglo-Irish relations. The book goes back on the period which opened with the constitutional crisis triggered by the House of Lords’ rejec...

Sri Lanka was confronted with three interrelated crises in 2019: the unresolved gridlock of last year’s constitutional crisis; the Easter bombings and their turbulent aftermath; and the coming to a head of fiscal shortfalls and debt burdens. Growth is stalling, living costs are rising, deficits are widening, and the price of Sri Lanka’s debt is weighing heavily on the government budget. In the presidential elections, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, heir of the Rajapaksa dynasty, prevailed with a landslide.

The recent legal changes pertaining to the institution of the Constitutional Tribunal arouse many controversies. This paper presents a sociological and legal study conducted to collect and examine the opinions regarding the above held by Polish lawyers who because of their profession and experience are in a position to confront directly the legal practice with the changing legal system that is directly responsible for the level of protection of individual rights and the exercise of individual fundamental rights. From the point of view of rationality and functionality of the operations of the Constitutional Tribunal an opinion formulated by jurists who due to their background have greater legal awareness seemed invaluable. After all it will be their opinion which will decide about the future of the judiciary in Poland. The results of the current transformations being implemented in constitutional judiciary as well as at the level of common courts have consequences for all the citizens. The aim of the questions asked in the survey was to fi nd how lawyers in Poland saw the situation with the Constitutional Tribunal today as well as what the though it its regime and functioning could be like in the future. Questions also concerned the current and actual legal status of the Tribunal and the lawyers’ reactions to the changes being implemented or about to me made, and if possible the possible ways of ending the current Constitutional Tribunal crisis.

The current decade brought a neo-authoritarian wave to the countries in CEE. Thisprocess, which in certain respects runs parallel to the populist upsurge in Western countries, has itsown specificity. Firstly, by focusing on the clash between “elites” and “the people”, it rekindles – ina displaced, right-wing form – the class conflict which before 1989 was an ideological staple in CEEcountries. Secondly, insofar as neo-authoritarianism in CEE has often a distinctly neo-liberal agendashadowed by declarative anti-globalism and national chauvinism, it warps the field of politicalstruggle. Thirdly, in the neo-authoritarian turn law becomes the crucial field of ideological fight,principally in those countries where populists came to power. In this respect, new governments inCEE resort to a blend of old Fascist tools (such as dismantling of constitutional control and denyingthe primacy of international law) and new inventions (such as the effective state of exception insome areas of law in Poland introduced in 2015–18). The role of critical jurisprudence in CEE istherefore particularly significant and difficult. The paper argues that liberal jurisprudence, althoughactively engaged in analysing neo-authoritarianism, does not possess adequate conceptual toolsfor full success. Therefore critical jurisprudence should urgently take part in explaining neoauthoritarianismin the legal field.

The National Unity Government, formed by the traditional rivals UNP and SLFP, was a good example of „cohabitation‟. However, things started falling apart in due course due to new political realignments. It reached a stage where President Sirisena joined hands with the previous President Rajapaksa to oust Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe resulting in about a two-month-long politico-constitutional crisis. With judicial intervention, the crisis got over, but not permanently; the polity looks polarised. The crisis has wide-ranging implications, both at domestic and international levels, especially for India-Sri Lanka relations. Unprecedented political situation that has arisen in Sri Lanka has at least two broad implications on India-Sri Lanka relations: the state of Indian infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka and the ethnic issue in the island nation. Keywords: Wickremasinghe, Sirisena

The Catalan Crisis of 2017-2018 has shown significant misunderstandings in the internal legal system of Spain. Many issues of the legal system were differently understood by the central government and by the autonomous authorities in Barcelona. It concerned such as important issues like the institution of referendum, which was interpreted differently by politicians from Madrid and the Constitutional Court and otherwise by those from Barcelona. The genesis of the constitutional crisis itself is rooted in the global economic crisis that began in the second half of the last decade, as it was then that the Catalan nationalist movement radicalized.

El equilibrio interno de poder de las órdenes federales es un tema importante en el pensamiento constitucional de Kelsen. Su teoría de los conflictos federales está en deuda tanto con los logros de sus investigaciones sobre la teoría del derecho como con su participación directa en los debates de política constitucional en los años veinte y treinta. Al hacerlo, adoptó una postura firme en el momento del golpe prusiano, una importante crisis constitucional en cuya gestión Carl Schmitt también desempeñó un papel importante. En mi ensayo, me basaré en el análisis de Paolo Carrozza sobre la contribución de Kelsen a la teoría constitucional de las federaciones. Se trata de resaltar su relevancia para una comprensión adecuada de los desarrollos más recientes en los sistemas federales, incluidas las consecuencias de las crisis secesionistas en Europa.Recibido: 11 mayo 2019Aceptado: 21 junio 2019Publicación en línea: 31 julio 2019

In 2018, escalating political tensions in Sri Lanka resulted in a constitutional crisis centred on the authoritarian politician Mahinda Rajapaksa. It was a moment in which the not-so-distant memory...

This case study assesses how firms deployed language tactically to cope with crisis events. By applying the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach, we identify linguistic characteristics of Google and Apple’s crisis communication in China and note that different discursive strategies were adopted to manage their organizational legitimacy. When facing a major constitutional crisis that threatens the organization’s cognitive and moral legitimacy, the linguistic components consist of words and grammars with associative relationship, strong rhetoric, and inclusion of audience views to secure a wide range of support. When a legitimacy crisis is instrumental, the wording and grammars used are more with realistic relationships and technical rhetoric, with different expected outcomes.

A democracia representativa se baseia na renovação dos mandatos presidenciais. No entanto, o modelo presidencial de governo na América Latina é vitimizante das sociedades locais e propicia terreno fértil para a didatura e o enfraquecimento das instituições do Estado. A Constituição se apresenta como caminho para escapar da crise que desestabiliza os sistemas de governo e somente a partir dela se poderá vencer a crise do poder constituinte, diversa que é da crise constitucional.

This paper examines how the European Commission interprets and applies the participatory norm in practice according to constructed strategic contexts. By taking a historical comparative approach and focusing on two examples it shows how, following the Maastricht ‘crisis’ (1992-1998), the participatory norm in the form of debate and dialogue referred simply to a restricted discussion of Single Market rights (DD1). This was a rather limited, one-phased technical discussion on a single issue with an attendant conception of the public as single-issue ratifiers of already existing policies. In contrast, the aftermath of the Constitutional ‘crisis’ (2005-09) led to a conception of debate and dialogue as ‘open-ended’ (DD2); that is, a reflexive wide-ranging amorphous discussion on various and almost randomly chosen topics. DD2 assumed a public of able political discussants, of reflexive and skilful deliberators. What DD1, DD2 and their respective publics show is that when the participatory norm is applied, neither the form of debate and dialogue nor the publics are necessarily defined through universal democratic principles of political involvement and entitlements but rather in terms of expediency and contingent abilities to meet the needs of the European Commission’s strategic agenda at any one time.

En Schmitt, “Estado total” mienta dos realidades. Primero, Estado total “por debilidad”, o disolución y desbordamiento de lo político por el conflicto social y la lucha de clases en la crisis constitucional alemana. En segundo lugar, Estado total “en el sentido de la cualidad y la energía”, cuyo modelo es el Estado nazi de 1933. Para Schmitt sería la respuesta a dicha crisis: un Estado capaz de decidir, como instancia soberana, por encima de los conflictos que desgarran la unidad política, e instaurar la unidad y el combate al enemigo. Ello lo lograría apropiándose de los medios técnicos y sustituyendo la estructura del Estado clásico por una triple (Estado, Movimiento, Pueblo).

Despite being a small and relatively secluded country, managing the COVID-19 pandemic has so far been quite a challenge for Israel. This contribution seeks to explain how Israel had managed migration and the pandemic amidst a constitutional crisis between February and July 2020.

Revolutionary actions and constitutional crises are closely linked. However, research mainly looks at the two phenomena as distinct from each other. While studies on revolutionary actions are interested in the agency and the impact of the actions on the country’s institutions, legal research focuses on the constitution itself. The separation of the two strands leads to a limited understanding of their dynamics and complexity. What do we know about the relationship between revolutionary actions and constitutional crisis, and vice versa? The first question is how revolutionary actions trigger constitutional crisis, defined as a moment in which decision makers are unwilling or unable to manage the societal conflicts within the confinement of the constitutionally provided boundaries. Different types of revolutionary behavior—such as elite-led military coups, civil wars, and nonviolent resistance movements—trigger constitutional crises in many cases. They can lead to a new constitution with diverse implications for the political system. Whether the opposition or the old regime prevails in the constitutional crisis is a question of the power resources of both parties to the conflict. In some cases, the opposition movements succeed in making the political system more democratic. However, there are also cases where the constitutional crisis ultimately leads to more power for the ruling class. The relationship also works vice versa: a constitutional crisis can trigger revolutionary actions. Constitutional coups, and processes of democratic backsliding and constitutional rot, can trigger violent and nonviolent revolutionary actions. Political elites can try to change constitutional norms for their own benefit, such as extending the presidential term of office. This often leads to a storm of public protest and can become a real threat to the regime’s survival. A constitution can enter a crisis phase for a long time if it no longer serves the needs of parts of society. The injustices that thus arise within society can be a strong motive for revolutions. The combination of agency and constitutional processes is a promising avenue for future research that could help analyze the complex relationship between constitutional crises and revolutionary actions. In addition to innovative theoretical approaches, new empirical data is needed to examine the process of constitutional negotiation in more detail.

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared the outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to be a pandemic. In decision-making during health crises, individuals must trust the information they receive from the government. Because Israel was in the midst of a deep constitutional crisis, the challenges it faced in managing the COVID-19 crisis differed from those experienced by other countries. The spread of COVID-19 endangered public health, undermined economic and social resilience, challenged effective governance, and even provided cover for processes that could potentially harm democratic values. The aim of this chapter is to analyse Israeli policy-makers’ health and risk communication efforts during the COVID-19 first wave and the early stages of the second wave. The chapter first describes the COVID-19 narrative in Israel and discusses the different strategies used by the Israeli government to communicate the health guidelines to the public, among them fear appeals, use of military-style language, and mixed messages. It then discusses public trust in times of pandemics and draws conclusions about the Israeli government’s health and risk communication efforts, before making recommendations for building and strengthening trust between the government and the public in future pandemics.

In the LM case, the CJEU was called to decide on whether systemic rule of law deficiencies in Poland could lead to the suspension of EU cooperation based on mutual trust, in particular under the European Arrest Warrant system. Building on its earlier decision in Aranyosi, the Court concluded that EAWs may be suspended only after the executing authority conducts a general analysis of the situation in the country concerned and an individual assessment of the specific situation of the applicant. For some, the decision was a disappointing one, as the Court failed to take a clear stance on the Polish constitutional crisis. This chapter argues, on the other hand, that the Court reached a balanced decision: while it is true that it confirmed the strict Aranyosi test, it also sent some key messages on the crucial importance of the rule of law and judicial independence for the EU and underlined the red lines of European constitutionalism. Furthermore, a different line of cases that originated from the groundbreaking decision of the Court in the ‘Portuguese judges’ case seems much more promising for the protection of EU values. Thus, rather than a constitutional moment for the Union, LM was ultimately an intermezzo between the two main acts of the rule of law play before the Court of Justice.

The last decade offered advocates fleeting hope that the courts would step in to reform public defense. However, recent decisions by state courts – and the intransigence of the federal judiciary – have proven those prospects a mirage. In this essay, a courts’ researcher and advocate condemns federal and state jurists for their open and continuing refusal to address a constitutional crisis occurring daily in their own courthouses. Legislatures are proving powerless to fix the problem, too. If change is possible, it will come from the most unlikely partners in an adversarial legal system – prosecutors. Far from a wild notion, this initiative is already underway in several jurisdictions. Reform makes for strange bedfellows.

The Catalan secessionist crisis represents the most serious threat to the Spanish constitutional order since Franco’s dictatorship ended. This chapter explores three dimensions of a possible response to the challenge of the Catalan secessionist movement: the discourse employed, the means used to deploy it and the envisaged result. All of these are articulated considering the relationship between the Catalan secessionist imaginary and constitutionalism. The chapter reveals the degree to which Catalan secessionist discourse employs anti-constitutionalism arguments, the ambiguity in the means used for achieving its goal of the independence and, finally, the commitment to constitutionalism in the post-independence scenario. Accordingly, the chapter traces possible inconsistencies in the Catalan secessionists’ approach to constitutionalism as well as the disorientation that these inconsistencies may produce, both within and outside the movement. The repercussions may even prove relevant to debates in other nations dealing with secession movements, such as Canada and the United Kingdom

Over 100 years since its amalgamation as a British colony and protectorate, and 61 years since its independence, the "Giant of Africa" - Nigeria, has fallen short of even the most pessimistic projections of its potential. In terms of development, economic advancement, standard of living and social welfare, Nigeria consistently ranks amongst the worst performing countries in the world, in spite of its being blessed with tremendous natural and human resources and being one of the world's largest producers of crude oil. Despite its longstanding claim to being an indissoluble federal republic, the country is rife with ethnic and religious conflict, agitations for "true federalism" and even secession. Following from the foregoing, this paper examines some of the foundational issues that have continually hindered Nigeria's development - its constitutional crisis of identity, its pseudo-federalism and the impotence of its constituent parts. The paper shall examine the features of a model federalist state, with a view to determining the veracity of Nigeria's claim to the practice of federalism, and shall propose a socio-political reorganisation towards designing an efficient governance model that reflects the heterogenous developmental needs of Nigeria's constituent parts.

Why are Catholic hospitals now liable to suit by “transgender men” on whom they refuse, for religious reasons, to perform hysterectomies? In part, no doubt, because courts misunderstand the nature and purpose of the Religion Clause in our First Amendment and, more generally, our Constitution and rule of law. More fundamentally, however, the current attack on religion in America stems from the loss of understanding of the nature of our constitutional order and its grounding in natural law. Our current legal crisis, often presented by lawyers as a matter of interpretation, is rooted in metaphysical confusion and so cannot be resolved through interpretive reforms alone. As John Courtney Murray, S.J., pointed out in the middle of the last century, American constitutionalism is inextricably bound up with natural law understandings of the person and the social order. These understandings, long maintained through a fruitful relationship between religious and secular authority, especially in the educational sphere, have been massively undermined by judicial rulings.

This chapter concerns the constitutional crisis in Poland that began in 2015. It was triggered by appointing judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, by the outgoing Parliament, and then by re-appointing new judges for the same vacancies. Thus, the status of three judges elected by the previous Parliament and three judges elected by the current Parliament remains disputable.One of the crucial elements of the rule of law is the principle of legality. There are two aspects of this principle: the presumption of legality that covers all acts of state bodies; the revoking of this presumption may be performed only within procedures prescribed by the law. The law should indicate a state body competent to revoke the presumption of legality and define the legal effects of such revoking. If the law is incomplete, incoherent or imprecise in that scope—that may lead to legal and political crisis. Polish legislation and Constitution fail to comply with the said standard. This is one of the causes of the constitutional crisis in Poland.In a state governed by the rule of law state bodies should mutually respect their acts. State bodies should not treat acts or decisions issued by other state bodies as invalid or non-existent, unless it is declared within a procedure prescribed by the law. Otherwise, a legal chaos may occur. Courts are not empowered to evaluate the lawfulness of the Tribunal’s judgments. One of the crucial elements of the rule of law principle is the certainty of law.