IACL-IADC Blog
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The overriding objective of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) is to provide a forum in which constitutionalists from all parts of the world can begin to understand each other's systems, explain and reflect on their own, and engage in fruitful comparison, for a variety of purposes. In line with the aims of the IACL, the purpose of this blog is to provide a forum for..
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
Colm O’Cinneide
University College London
The Irish Citizens’ Assembly: The Magic Formula for Leavening Direct Democracy with Greater Deliberation?
Previous posts in this blog symposium have outlined the design, purpose and functioning of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly, and offered different perspectives on its impact on the 2018 Irish abortion referendum. But there is another dimension to the debate about the Assembly which is worth discussing - namely the international attention it has attracted.
As an Irish academic based in London, I have been struck by the level of interest shown by friend ..read more
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
David Kenny
Trinity College Dublin
The task facing the Citizens’ Assembly was very challenging. It had to deal with many issues of medical, ethical and legal importance; to hear personal stories alongside complex regulatory information; and to offer space for ordinary citizens to process and deliberate on all of this. Eoin Carolan and Mairead Enright, writing in this Symposium, have each commented critically on the legalistic, lawyerly approach of the Assembly. There is a significant and legitimate question as to what extent the Assembly should have been tasked with providing answers to speci ..read more
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
Giovanni Di Cosimo
University of Macerata
Two paths
The Italian political system has profoundly changed in the transition from the so-called first Republic to the second. In the early 1990s, the traditional parties – which included Christian Democracy and the Communist party – disappeared, and new parties were set up, in particular Forza Italia, the political movement founded by Silvio Berlusconi in 1994. In more recent years, the scene has further changed. In 2009 the Five Star Movement was born, which won the elections in March 2018 and now governs the country together with the Lega.
All th ..read more
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
Máiréad Enright
University of Birmingham
The 2016-2017 Irish Citizens’ Assembly served some feminist goals. However, it was structured around four flawed assumptions:
First, abortion law was properly a subject for communal decision-making, even though some of the most intimate aspects of women’s lives were at stake.
Undoubtedly, women who had terminated pregnancies were involved in the 2016-2017 Assembly, and some of those who testified before it discussed their own experiences. But in general, perhaps reflecting an expectation that effective deliberation requires suppression of persona ..read more
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
Laura Cahillane
University of Limerick
The Irish Citizens’ Assembly came off the back of another relatively successful experiment with deliberative democracy, in the form of the Convention on the Constitution. As fulfilment of election promises, the Convention was established in 2012 and charged with considering a list of potential reforms to the Irish Constitution. The 100 members comprised: a chairman; 29 members of the Oireachtas (parliament); four representatives of Northern Ireland political parties; and 66 randomly selected citizens of Ireland. The citizens, while chosen at random by a ..read more
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
Argelia Queralt Jiménez
University of Barcelona
Editors’ Note: In October 2017 Catalonia experienced acute political and constitutional crisis following the holding of an independence referendum and subsequent unilateral declarations of independence from Spain issued by the Catalan parliament. Roughly one year on, we gather two diverging perspectives on the crisis and its aftermath, from Mireia Grau and Argelia Queralt Jiménez.
On 6 and 7 September 2017, the Catalan Parliament passed two laws: the law on the unilateral referendum on self-determination and the transitory law (from the Sp ..read more
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
Mireia Grau Creus
Institut d’Estudis de l’Autogovern, Generalitat de Catalunya
Editors’ Note: In October 2017 Catalonia experienced acute political and constitutional crisis following the holding of an independence referendum and subsequent unilateral declarations of independence from Spain issued by the Catalan parliament. Roughly one year on, we gather two diverging perspectives on the crisis and its aftermath, from Mireia Grau and Argelia Queralt Jiménez.
The political and analytical debates on recent events in Catalonia have mostly been presented from a perspective according to which the ..read more
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
Eoin Carolan
University College Dublin
Ireland’s recent citizens’ assembly and resulting referendum on abortion rights highlights the history-changing impact citizens’ assemblies can have…. Not only did the Assembly spark a long-awaited public discussion on abortion rights, it helped set the stage for last month’s national referendum on May 25th.
Ireland’s Citizens Assembly is a progressive piece of democratic apparatus and its success should inspire democracies across the globe to adopt it, or something similar…. The success of the Irish case should be seen as a model for both the UK a ..read more
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
Fiona de Londras
University of Birmingham
Given how contentious abortion tends to be as a matter of both political and legal discourse, it may be tempting to seek out a ‘silver bullet’ from the Irish experience; to find what, if anything, made our experience of abortion law reform so distinctive and, from the perspective of those in favor of liberalization, so successful. The temptation to pinpoint the Citizens’ Assembly (CA) as that silver bullet is no doubt strong. However, I want to argue here that any such enterprise must be approached critically and with care, and to suggest that the imp ..read more
IACL-IADC Blog
3y ago
Yonatan Fessha
EURAC Research
A few months ago, Isaias Afeworki, President of the Eritrean government, received delegates from Ethiopia. This would not make big news as receiving dignitaries usually forms part of the itinerary of a head of state. But it is still a major news and, one may argue, understandably so. These are two countries that have been in state of war for the last 20 years. But there was another reason why the visit should attract unusual attention. It was not the delegates of the national government that were paying a visit to the Eritrean President. It was a delegation of th ..read more