Constitutional Change

by Zoltán Szente Regardless of the intense government campaign which lasted more than a year and the involvement of almost the entire state apparatus, the Government-initiated anti-migrant referendum held on 2 October proved to be invalid due to low turnout. The Hungarian Government initiated a national referendum in February 2016 against the controversial quota system proposed by the EU for the resettlement of migrants among the Member States.
by David Gwynn Morgan, Professor of Law at Kuwait International Law School A major step in confirming the Rule of Law in Kuwait was taken with the Court of Cassation case of Al-Jaber, No (3253) of the year, 2014, judgment given on April 4, 2016. The facts were sufficiently simple and typical for the decision to be capable of growth in several direction, assuming that it is followed in later cases.
by Thomas Fleiner On September 25, the Swiss sovereign (according to Article 195 and Article 142 par 2 of the Constitution) rejected two popular constitutional initiatives and the voters decided on a referendum (Article 142 par 1 of the Constitution) against the law on the intelligence service. The sovereign rejected both initiatives and the majority of the voters accepted the law on the intelligence service. The turnout was about 42%.
by Dr. Alkmene Fotiadou, Centre for European Constitutional Law. On July 25, the Greek Prime Minister announced his proposals for a revision of the Constitution of Greece. The key characteristic of the proposals is the very conspicuous possibility that an unconstitutional constitutional revision shall take place, entailing both procedural unconstitutionality and subject-matter unconstitutionality.
by Paul Blokker ‘In order to obtain a united Europe against terrorism, we need a strong country, with a Constitution that gives stability’. In this way, Maria Elena Boschi, the Italian Minister for Constitutional Reform, recently justified the pending comprehensive reform of the Italian Constitution of 1948. Boschi’s ambiguous observation – suggesting that a vote against the constitutional reform project in the upcoming referendum in October leaves Italy more vulnerable in the face of terrorism – is part of an intense public debate in Italy.
by John McEldowney On 23rd June 2016, the UK held a referendum on EU membership. The referendum question was “ Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? The answer surprised some, but delighted others, 51.9% wished to leave while 48.9% wished to remain.
by Thomas Fleiner On June 5, the sovereign decided on five different issues with a turnout of 46%. The sovereign had to decide on three constitutional proposals, which need an approval of the majority of the voters and of the cantons. The voters and all cantons refused all three popular initiatives with some 23% to 32% against a majority of 67.6% to 76.9%. The voters of the people’s majority decided also on too legislative referenda against the law on asylum and against the law on reproduction.
John R. Vile, (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016, xv + 266 pp., ISBN: 978-0-8203-4900-8). This book is the culmination of more than 30 years of thinking about the unused Article V convention mechanism and related subjects. I spend the first part of the book exploring the origins of Article V processes and convention precedents in the late eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth centuries. I also examine early legal commentaries on the subject. Although I believe the weight of this evidence, including Alexander Hamilton’s comments in Federalist No. 85, suggest that such conventions can be limited, I note that this specific issue does not appear to have been as prominent in earlier legal and political discourse as it is now, and I examine recent arguments both for and against the limited convention option.

Latest Posts