EVENTS SPRING 2015
Libyan citizens protest as the country crafts a new constitution
www.cldg.law.ed.ac.uk Convenor | Tom Gerald Daly
In associatio n with the Edinburgh Centre fo r Constitutional Law
Contents
About Us
3
Events | Spring 2015
4
Past Events
6
Speakers
8
Our Sponsors
9
Convenor
10
Contact Details
11
About Us
The Constitutional Law Discussion Group (CLDG) was established by Ph.D researchers at Edinburgh Law School in 2012 to provide a structured forum for debate on constitutional issues in the Law School between postgraduate researchers and staff members. The Group focuses on both practical and theoretical aspects of constitutional law, and designs each semester schedule with the aim of exploring constitutional matters and ideas across the world, as well as addressing UK-specific topics. Our primary activity is a fortnightly one-hour discussion. Meetings are quite informal: a member of the group or a guest makes a presentation, which provides the basis for an open discussion. Other formats have included structured dialogues, a symposium, round-table discussions, Q&As, and an online discussion forum (for the Scottish independence referendum). Meetings are held in the Law School’s historic grounds at Old College and are attended by a mix of postgraduate researchers and members of staff, from within and outside the Law School. The Group operates with support from the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law
T
Events | Spring 2015 3 February
Professor Jeremy WALDRON
NMacC 3pm
New York University Law School
‘Q&A with Professor Jeremy Waldron’
Co-hosted with Legal Theory Group
17 February
Ilaria DI GIOIA
NMacC 3pm
PhD Candidate, Birmingham City University
3 March
Tom Gerald DALY
NMacC 3pm
PhD Candidate, Edinburgh Law School
24 March
Magna Carta 800th Anniversary
NMacC 3pm
Dr Brian Christopher JONES
‘When Liberty Subverts Federalism: Is Nullification of Federal Law Legitimate?’ ‘Toward a Normative Theory of Democratisation Jurisprudence’ ‘Preliminary Warnings on 'Constitutional' Idolatry’
Postdoctoral researcher, Institutum Iurisprudentiae, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
21 April
Professor Alon HAREL
NMacC 3pm
Hebrew University of Jerusalem Co-hosted with Legal Theory Group
1 May
Professor Jessica SMITH
NMacC 3pm
School of Government, The University of North Carolina
12 May
MacCormick Seminar
NMacC 3pm
Professor Thomas CROCKER
‘A Note on the Normative Status of Constitutions and International Law: The Case for Discordant Parity’ ‘Constitutional Protections in US Criminal Trials’
(Title TBA)
University of South Carolina School of Law
19 May
Professor Peter C. OLIVER
Room
University of Ottawa
26 May
Professor Stefano CIVITARESE
NMacC 3pm
Professor of public law, University of Chieti-Pescara, fellow at York Law School
Change in the Ultimate Rules of a Legal System: Uncertainty, Hard Cases, Commonwealth Precedents, and the Importance of Context ‘Breaking the Isolation: Italian Perspectives on the Dialogue between the ECJ and Constitutional Courts’
Past Events AUTUMN 2014
SPRING 2014
Dr Lindsay Stirton |15 December 2014
‘New Democracies in Crisis: Towards Illiberal and Away from Civic Constitutionalism?’
‘The Curious Origins of Judicial Review’
Dr Catherine Dupré 9 December 2014
‘Human Dignity and Judicial Reasoning in European Constitutionalism’
Prof. James E Pfander | 25 November 2014 ‘Non-Contentious Jurisdiction and Inquisitorial Judging in the Courts of the United States’
Dr Jeff King | 28 October 2014 ‘The Constitutional Concept of a Social State’
Dr Pau Bossacoma i Busquets 14 October 2014
‘Constitutional Roads to Independence: The Problematic Catalan Case in the Light of the Scottish Experience’
Tom Gerald Daly | 22 April 2014 ‘Democratisation Jurisprudence – Sketching the Contours of a Fledgling Concept’
Prof. Roberto Gargarella | 1 April 2014 ‘Dialogic Constitutionalism and the System of Checks and Balances: Emerging Problems’
Prof. Fiona de Londras | 18 March 2014 ‘Constitutionalist Ruptures in the Contemporary Counter-Terrorist State’
Dr Rivka Weill | 4 March 2014 ‘The New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism Notwithstanding’
Dr Conrado Hubner Mendes | 18 February 2014 ‘Constitutional Courts and Deliberative Democracy’
Zaid Al-Ali | 12 February 2014 ‘Constitutional Reform in the Age of Arab Revolutions: Overcoming the Legacy of Totalitarianism’
Prof. Alessandro Torre 23 September 2014
‘Constitutional Reform and Politics – the Italian Case’
Prof. Spyridon Flogaitis | 6 May 2014 ‘The Rebirth of Public Powers in Europe, from the Roman Empire to the Creation of States’
Prof. Ted White | 1 October 2014 ‘The Constitution and the New Deal’
Dr Erin F. Delaney | 20 May 2014 ‘Judiciary Rising? The UK Supreme Court and Theories of Judicial Empowerment’
Asanga Welikala | 11 November 2014 ‘Democracy v. Liberalism? ‘Comprehensive Pluralism’ as an Alternative Normative Foundation for the Plurinational State in the Global South’
Dr Paul Blokker | 3 June 2014
Silvia Suteu and Yaniv Roznai | 5 February 2014 PhD Dialogue: ‘Exploring the Eternal Constitution: Perspectives on Constitutional Entrenchment’
20 March 2014
Symposium: ‘The UK Constitution – In Search of Constitutionalism’
Dr Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne 14 January 2014
‘In Search of the Ancient Constitution in South and Southeast Asia: The Galactic Polity as Inspiration for the Constitutional Accommodation of National Pluralism in Postwar Sri Lanka’
SPRING 2013
Prof Thomas Crocker | 30 July 2013
AUTUMN 2012
‘One Country, Two Systems: Constitutional Legitimacy in Hong Kong and Macau’
‘Character, Identity, and Public Necessity in the American Constitution’
Shamiran Mako | 27 May 2013 ‘The Making and Unmaking of Constitutionalism in Iraq: Historical Developments and Post-2003 Implications’
Prof Zoran Oklopcic | 7 May 2013 ‘Matryoshkas in the Periphery, or, Should Constitutional Pluralism be Provincialized?’
Tom Gerald Daly | 27 November 2012 ‘A Constitutional Coup? Hungary’s New Basic Law’
Carlo Colombo | 21 May 2013 ‘Regions before the European Courts: Which Entities and Which Rationale?’
Diogo de Sousa e Alvim | 4 December 2012
Alex Latham | 20 November 2012 ‘After Brighton: What is the European Court of Human Rights For?’
Silvia Suteu | 6 November 2012 ‘Iceland’s Constitutional Referendum – Taking a Closer Look at Constitutional Reform in Progress’
Kajit (John Paul) Bagu | 23 April 2013 ‘Plurinational Visions in Constitutional Discourse’
Dr Daithí Mac Sithigh | 9 April 2013 ‘Official Language in the British Constitution’
Asanga Welikala | 19 March 2013 ‘Fundamental Principles in Constitutionmaking in Democratic Transitions: The African, South Asian and Middle Eastern Experiences’
James Lowe | 12 March 2013 ‘The Leveson Report: Pressing Down on a Free Press?’
Pablo Marshall | 19 February 2013 ‘Pyrrhic Victories: The Use of the Proportionality Test in Prisoners’ Disenfranchisement Cases’
Dr Cormac Mac Amhlaigh | 5 February 2013 ‘What is a Bill of Rights For?’
Dr Elisenda Casanas Adam | 22 January 2013
‘Another Independence Referendum in 2014? Recent Developments in Catalonia and the Current Debate on its Constitutional Future’
Further information, including abstracts, can be found on our website, www.cldg.law.ed.ac.uk
Speakers
Speakers at the CLDG to date have come from universities worldwide, including: New York University (NYU) ● Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Argentina Northwestern University, Illinois ● University of Trento, Italy Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) Faculty of Law, Barcelona Interdisciplinary Centre (IDC), Herzliya, Israel ● University of Trento, Italy University of Athens, Greece ● University of São Paulo (USP) Griffith Law School, Queensland, Australia ● Carleton University, Canada University College London (UCL) ● University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
Our Sponsors
The CLDG is very grateful to receive sponsorship from a number of sources, which has allowed us to expand our schedule year on year. CLDG Events this year are funded by: The Postgraduate Research Student Board (PGRSB) The Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law The Global Justice Academy
Past CLDG events have also been funded by the Scottish Constitutional Futures Forum
Convenor Tom Gerald Daly
Tom is a founder of the CLDG (with Silvia Suteu). He is also Associate Director for Research Engagement at the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law and Steering Committee member of the university’s Global Justice Academy. He has previously worked at the Supreme Court of Ireland as Executive Legal Officer to the Chief Justice (2006-11), as Editor-in-Chief of the Judicial Studies Institute Journal (2005-8), and as a consultant on Council of Europe, European Union, Soros Foundation and Judicial Studies Institute projects. He has been Consultant Editor of the Venice Commission Bulletin on Constitutional Case-Law since 2009. Currently a third-year Ph.D Candidate at Edinburgh Law School, he is researching the evolving and interactive roles of constitutional courts and regional human rights courts in democratisation processes during the post-war era (thesis title: ‘Judging Democratisation: Courts as Democratisation Technology in the Post-War World’). He has presented and published widely on the connection between law and democracy, and the role of the law and courts in supporting democratisation processes. His full researcher profile is available at: www.law.ed.ac.uk/research/students.
Contact
Address
E-mail Website Twitter
Tom Gerald Daly The School of Law University of Edinburgh Old College South Bridge Edinburgh EH8 9YL cldg@ed.ac.uk www.cldg.law.ed.ac.uk @CLDGEdinburgh
Contact can be made with the CLDG, preferably through our e-mail address. Please feel free to email to: Request inclusion in our mailing list; Provide feedback on events and suggestions for future events; Share interesting information concerning a topic discussed at a past meeting; Share information on recent publications and court decisions concerning constitutional law; Apply to present at the CLDG: We issue a call for presenters each semester through the UK Constitutional Law Blog and our website. Informal queries about presenting are also welcome.
© 2015 www.cldg.law.ed.ac.uk