Academic boycotts are destructive to academic freedom. They are contrary to the free exchange of ideas. And they punish scholars, staff, and institutions indiscriminately. I was therefore disappointed when the American Association of University Professors recently reversed its twenty-year opposition to academic boycotts. There are better alternatives to boycotts, including resolutions of censure and public protests.

***

Two scholars have circulated a powerful statement against academic boycotts. So far over 3000 scholars from around the world have endorsed it. The statement is open for signature here. 

Last month, Daniela Marzi entered office as the new President of the Constitutional Court of Chile. A professor of labor law at the Universidad de Valparaíso, President Marzi has earned law degrees from three different countries: an undergraduate law degree in Chile, a master's law degree in Italy, and a doctoral law degree in Spain. Prior to joining the Court as an Associate Justice in 2022, President Marzi directed the Human Rights Center at the Universidad de Chile. Watch her investiture here.

The long-awaited Asian Comparative Constitutional Law: Volume 2 – Constitutional Amendments is now published. Edited by Ngoc Son Bui and Mara Malagodi, this excellent resource examines the design, operation, and evolution of constitutional amendment procedures in 17 Asian jurisdictions: Bangladesh, Cambodia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand.

Join us for the 2025 Global Summit on Constitutionalism here at the University of Texas at Austin on March 20-22, 2025. The Global Summit is an international conference showcasing all areas of constitutionalism. There is no cost to register. Group meals are provided. The first edition was held in 2021. The second in 2023. The 2025 Global Summit will be the third edition. All are welcome! Details and registration here.

***

The Global Summit will feature four keynote speakers as well as concurrent sessions composed of individual submissions and fully-formed panels. All are welcome to submit papers. Join us!

Kim Lane Scheppele, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University, will deliver the inaugural Sanford Levinson Lecture in Constitutional Studies.

Justice Natalia Ángel Cabo of the Constitutional Court of Colombia will assess the current state of constitutional courts in Latin America.

On the 20th anniversary of the failure of the European Constitution, Miguel Maduro, Dean of the Law School at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, will offer reflections on the past and future of a Constitution for Europe.

Christina Murray, one of the world's most sought-after constitutional advisors, will discuss the current state and future trends in constitution-making.

This week, Ramona Lampley and Eugene Mazo will lead a discussion on U.S. constitutional law and politics in the next installment of our virtual course on challenges to democracy and constitutionalism in the Americas. All are welcome. Tuesday, August 27, at 8pm Toronto/NYC time.

***

To register for this free seminar, please email Jorge Madrazo at madrazojorge@yahoo.com. This virtual course is co-sponsored by the UNAM School of Law, UNAM San Antonio, UNAM PAME, the Instituto Iberoamericano de Derecho Constitucional, and the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism.

The Organization of American States recently made history when its Assembly elected the first Paraguayan to serve on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Diego Moreno will serve a six-year term beginning on March 1, 2025. Formerly Chair of the Paraguayan Institute of Constitutional Law and Legal Officer in the Department of International Law of the OAS General Secretariat, he is a professor in the Judicial Academy of Paraguay, an invaluable contributor to the International Review of Constitutional Reform, and the author of an important chapter in The Architecture of Constitutional Amendments. He is a distinguished graduate of the Universidad de Salamanca, Universidad Católica de Asunción, and Columbia University.

 

Next month, Hart will publish Constitutional Reasoning in Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Johanna Fröhlich. An impressive comparative study of how judges reason and rule, this book examines constitutional and supreme courts in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

In this draft, I introduce, illustrate, and theorize decolonial constitutionalism as the modern form of self-determination. I define decolonial constitutionalism as the use of legal, legitimate, and non-violent means to assert sovereignty, to secure rights, or to achieve recognition for a people, nation, or state that is legally or politically subordinate to domestic or foreign actors. The draft is available here. Comments welcome! 

Six years ago this week, I returned to Yale University on August 23-25, 2018, to co-host a conference with my former professor Bruce Ackerman on his then-forthcoming book Revolutionary Constitutions. The conference brought together 30 scholars from around the world to comment on the book ahead of its publication. The conference papers were later published in a book of their own: Revolutionary Constitutionalism: Law, Legitimacy, Power. 

***
Here we are the day before the conference, after a gift exchange!