Barbados will soon have a new constitution. Earlier this month, I traveled to Bridgetown at the invitation of the Constitutional Reform Commission that is drafting the new text. In addition to private meetings with members of the Commission (pictured above), I gave a public lecture on constitution-making. This is my second visit to Barbados; the first was in 2022 as the Commission's work was just beginning. Having followed the process closely, I expect that the new constitution will harmonize tradition with modernity, and express the high ideals of the people of Barbados. When the process ultimately concludes in a few weeks, the members of the Commission will deserve thanks and recognition for their momentous contributions to Barbados. 

The University of Michigan Press has just released this new book by Daphne Barak-Erez, currently a justice on the Supreme Court of Israel: Biblical Judgments: New Legal Readings in the Hebrew Bible. Drawing from landmark rulings around the world, Justice Barak-Erez explores contemporary controversies in law as seen through the lens of the Hebrew Bible. 

We invite scholars and judges to join our team for the 2023 Global Review of Constitutional Law, co-edited by David Landau, Pietro Faraguna, Giulia De Rossi Andrade and me. The Global Review is an annual book featuring country reports on constitutional developments over the past year. It is published in open access thanks to the generosity of the Constitutional Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior editions are available here: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.

I enjoyed this new paper by Rahel Freiburghaus and Adrian Vatter on Assessing the Effects of Amendment Rules in Federal Systems: Australia and Switzerland Compared. The authors identify fascinating centrifugal and centripetal forces in constitutional amendment rules in federal states, specifically in Switzerland and Australia, respectively.

My book on Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions (Oxford University Press) has been translated into Arabic. I am delighted with the publisher's cover design, which depicts both the erasure and rewriting associated with constitutional amendments. The book is now available at bookstores in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and beyond. My thanks to the Nohoudh Center and the entire team that helped make this translation possible.

Two constitutional giants passed away earlier this month. We are blessed to have had them in our lives.

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Peter Russell will be remembered as one of Canada's most important scholars of the Constitution. A long-time professor of political science at the University of Toronto, everything he wrote was worth reading, most notably his seminal Constitutional Odyssey: Can Canadians Become a Sovereign People? Peter and I had many debates about the nature and future of the Canadian Constitution. He once got the last word with this memorable line: “You are a Lockean, and I am a Burkean. Our views are simply incompatible!”

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When Amnon Rubinstein won the Israel Prize, the Selection Committee called him “the father of Israel’s constitutional law.” He helped the world understand the uniqueness of the Constitution of Israel, including with his paper on Israel's Partial Constitution: The Basic Laws. He was the founding law dean at Tel Aviv University and served in the Knesset and cabinet. He concluded his career as a faculty member at Reichman University, where I had the honor of meeting him when I served as a Visiting Professor in 2017. 

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May Professors Russell and Rubinstein rest in peace. Strength to their loved ones, and all who had the privilege of knowing them.

The newest issue of Constitutional Review includes papers on court-packing, emergencies, judicial power, presidential lawmaking, and more. This journal is published by the Constitutional Court of Indonesia.

The latest edition of the Journal of Constitutional Law in the Middle East and North Africa is now published, focusing on Arab Constitutional Responses to the Revolutions and Transformations in the Region. The Journal is managed by the Arab Association of Constitutional Law.

It was a joy to host the 2nd Graduate Conference on Constitutional Change last week here at the University of Texas at Austin. Our group of 40 doctoral students traveled from countries near and far – Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mauritius, Poland, and beyond. They presented their works-in-progress and received feedback on their ideas. They were also treated to presentations by three of my faculty colleagues: Dan Brinks on Constitutional Changes that Set the Table for "Quotidian Constitutional Reform"; (2) Zachary Elkins on Reflections on the Endurance of Constitutions — 15 Years On; and (3) Ashley Moran on Court-Driven Constitutional Change in Divided Societies. We were pleased to be joined by faculty commentators Sandy Levinson, Milton César Jiménez Ramírez, and Wilfred Codrington III. Our group of course enjoyed delicious Texas BBQ – on two occasions!