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Full-Text Articles in Law
Constitutional Fiats: Presidential Legislation In India's Parliamentary Democracy, Shubhankar Dam
Constitutional Fiats: Presidential Legislation In India's Parliamentary Democracy, Shubhankar Dam
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The article presents information on the presidential legislation of the parliamentary democracies, India and Pakistan. It discusses the role of the President acting as the Council of Ministers for the enactment of legislations as ordinances without the consent of the Parliament. Information on the legal interpretation of the ordinances and its interaction with the principles of the parliamentary system of the government is also presented.
Iftikhar Chaudhry’S Options: Can The Courts Remake Pakistani Democracy?, Shubhankar Dam
Iftikhar Chaudhry’S Options: Can The Courts Remake Pakistani Democracy?, Shubhankar Dam
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
No abstract provided.
Premature Judgment, Todd Landman
Premature Judgment, Todd Landman
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Just as Mark Twain said in 1897, “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” many commentators have prematurely reported the death of human rights. For example, in 1999, in The Theory and Reality of the Protection of International Human Rights , J. Shand Watson sees human rights as a “mere fiction” in light of a century of state-sponsored killing. One year later, Costas Douzinas, through an appeal to history, philosophy, and psychoanalysis proclaimed the “end of human rights.” It is thus no surprise that the article by Joshua Kurlantzick is yet another attempt to warn us that human rights …
From Undemocratic To Democratic Civil Society: Japan's Volunteer Fire Departments, Mary Alice Haddad
From Undemocratic To Democratic Civil Society: Japan's Volunteer Fire Departments, Mary Alice Haddad
Mary Alice Haddad
How do undemocratic civic organizations become compatible with democratic civil society? How do local organizations merge older patriarchal, hierarchical values and practices with newer more egalitarian, democratic ones? This article tells the story of how volunteer fire departments have done this in Japan. Their transformation from centralized war instrument of an authoritarian regime to local community safety organization of a full-fledged democracy did not happen overnight. A slow process of demographic and value changes helped the organization adjust to more democratic social values and practices. The way in which this organization made the transition offers important lessons for emerging democracies …
Democracy And Flame-Fanning Populists: An Undesirable Yet Inevitable Combination, Richard Burchill
Democracy And Flame-Fanning Populists: An Undesirable Yet Inevitable Combination, Richard Burchill
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Tariq Ramadan views the recent referendum in Switzerland inserting a ban against the building of minarets into the Swiss Constitution, as a vote against Muslims not only in Switzerland, but across Europe. Those of a more tolerant sensibility will of course agree with Ramadan on this issue and will easily criticize the Swiss for “getting it wrong” by voting in favor of this constitutional amendment. There is no question that a constitutional vote on what is essentially an issue of local planning permission is, as Ramadan describes it, a silly initiative. However, this is also the nature of democracy as …
The Dignity Of Voters—A Dissent, James A. Gardner
The Dignity Of Voters—A Dissent, James A. Gardner
Journal Articles
Since the waning days of the Burger Court, the federal judiciary has developed a generally well-deserved reputation for hostility to constitutional claims of individual right. In the field of democratic process, however, the Supreme Court has not only affirmed and expanded the applications of previously recognized rights, but has also regularly recognized new individual rights and deployed them with considerable vigor. The latest manifestation of this trend appears to be the emergence of a new species of vote dilution claim that recognizes a constitutionally grounded right against having one’s vote “cancelled out” by fraud or error in the casting and …
Anti-Regulatory Absolutism In The Campaign Arena: Citizens United And The Implied Slippery Slope, James A. Gardner
Anti-Regulatory Absolutism In The Campaign Arena: Citizens United And The Implied Slippery Slope, James A. Gardner
Journal Articles
Perhaps the most striking feature of the Supreme Court’s constitutional campaign jurisprudence is its longstanding, profound hostility to virtually any government regulation whatsoever of campaign speech and spending. Such an approach is highly unusual in constitutional law, which typically tolerates at least some level of regulatory intervention even with respect to strongly protected rights. The Court’s behavior in this respect is consistent with – and, I argue, is best understood as – the kind of behavior in which a court engages when it fears a slide down a slippery slope. But what lies at the bottom of the slope? And …
Can Mature Democracies Be Perfected?, Guy-Uriel Charles
Can Mature Democracies Be Perfected?, Guy-Uriel Charles
Faculty Scholarship
One of the more vexing questions about democracy that is often debated among political theorists, political scientists, and legal scholars is whether the democratic character of mature democracies can be improved. From one view, that of democratic realists, mature democracies are perfected as a matter of definition and as a matter of realistic expectations. Because mature democracies are those that respect core democratic principles, variations outside the core are simply policy differences based upon each democratic polity’s willingness to engage in a different set of trade-offs. For democratic realists, variations in democratic practice that are not related to core democratic …
Andean Left Turns: Constituent Power And Constitution-Making, Maxwell A. Cameron, Kenneth E. Sharpe
Andean Left Turns: Constituent Power And Constitution-Making, Maxwell A. Cameron, Kenneth E. Sharpe
Maxwell Cameron
"Cameron and Sharpe begin with the observation that Latin American left turns have occurred within the framework of electoral democracy, and that the concerns about the 'illiberalism' of the left (or indeed of some Latin American democracies generally) are belied by a remarkable commitment to constitutionalism on the part of precisely those leaders who have emerged in countries where liberal and republican institutions have historically been most weak: the Andes. Yet the commitment to constitutionalism can limit the possibilities for fundamental reform. Cameron and Sharpe see the allure of 'constituent power' as a formula for attempting 'foundational' change without revolutionary …