Schuette: The Latest in the Affirmative Action Saga
On April 22, 2014, in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the Supreme Court of the United States held that Michigan’s amendment to the State constitution, prohibiting the use...
Role of the Judiciary
Belgian Parliament Introduces Sex Quota in Constitutional Court
On the 4th of April, the Belgian Parliament passed a Bill that introduced a sex quota in the composition of the Constitutional Court (CC). It requires the Court to be...
Grootboom and the right to housing: A (Virtual) Comparative Conversation between students at UNSW and Oxford
Students from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the University of Oxford recently demonstrated the potential of a virtual classroom as a medium for facilitating debate and comparative...
Naz and Reclaiming Counter-Majoritarianism
The term “counter-majoritarian” has, more often than not, been used in a derogatory fashion – especially when it is used to describe an institution like the Supreme Court. However, after...
Lord Sumption on ‘The Limits of Law’
In the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Lecture, given in Kuala Lumpur on 20th November, Lord Sumption, Justice of the UK Supreme Court, again stepped into the debate over the appropriate...
Naz Foundation: Reading Down the Supreme Court
There is no doubt that the Supreme Court in Suresh Kumar v Naz Foundation held that section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes ‘carnal intercourse against the order...
Of Koushal v NAZ Foundation’s Several Travesties: Discrimination and Democracy
There are many things wrong about the 98 page decision of the Indian Supreme Court in Suresh Kumar Koushal v NAZ Foundation. The Court’s extensive quoting but tenacious refusal to...
Ready to Learn?
South Africa’s Legal Resources Centre (LRC) launched a new book—Ready to Learn? A Legal Resource for Realising the Right to Education—on 25 October at the Open Society Foundations in New...
Remembering Former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa Pius Langa
24 July 2013 was a sad day for South Africa as the news of the death of Former Chief Justice Pius Langa spread. Justice Langa played an important role in...
Using Public Interest Litigation to Combat Acid Attacks in India
Laxmi was 15 years old when her 32 year old neighbour declared his love for her. He sent her repeated text messages and when she did not respond, approached her...
A Human Rights Act for Australia: a transfer of power to the High Court, or a more democratic form of judicial decision-making?
Australia is the only Western country without some form of a national Bill of Rights. In 2008, the National Human Rights Consultation Committee, established by the federal government, recommended that...
The South African Constitutional Court: Is There a Threat From Popularism?
The overwhelming body of opinion seems to be that the South African Constitutional Court (CC) has done quite well in its first 17 years. From the first slew of ‘easy’...
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