I took these photos below at the re-opening of an elementary school that had been destroyed in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The Marco Depestre Foundation funded the reconstruction. After the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony, a young boy and girl raised their country's national flag. They were happy to once again have a safe place to learn.

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In this season of giving, I invite you to join me with a charitable donation to the Marco Depestre Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps feed, clothe, and educate children in Haiti. My mother is the volunteer director of this small charity named after her father, Marco Depestre, an agronomist and Methodist minister. Charitable gifts may be made via Canada Helps or PayPal. A donation in amount will help. It will go directly to efforts in Haiti. The Foundation pays no salaries and has little overhead.

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My best wishes of great joys and good health to you as we enter the new year ahead. May 2025 bring you peace, fulfillment, and all you wish for yourself and your loved ones.

This year brought important discoveries, analyses, and refinements in constitutional studies. Here are ten of the best articles published in 2024, listed alphabetically by author.

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1. Nicholas Aroney, George Duke, and Stephen Tierney | A Theory of Plural Constituent Power for Federal Systems | Global Constitutionalism

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2. N.W. Barber | What's the Point of Constitutional Monarchy? | The American Journal of Jurisprudence

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3. Melissa Crouch | The Military Turn in Comparative Constitutional Law: Constitutions and the Military in Authoritarian Regimes | Annual Review of Law and Social Science

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4. Kevin J. Elliott | Folk Constitutionalism, or Why it Matters How Ordinary People Think about the Constitution | Critical Review

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5. Charles M. Fombad and Johannes Socher | Symbolic Popular Participation in Constitution-Making and Constitutionalism in Francophone Africa | African Journal of International and Comparative Law

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6. Sandra Fredman | Care as a Constitutional Value | International Journal of Constitutional Law

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7. Leena Grover | Out of the Shadows: Illuminating the Distinctiveness and Exceptional Use of Interim Constitutions | International Journal of Constitutional Law

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8. M. Victoria Kristan | The Day After a Broken Democratic Polity | Global Constitutionalism

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9. Bugalo Maripe | Substantive Legitimate Expectations: Re-shaping the Boundaries of Judicial Reach in Public Law Remedies in Commonwealth Jurisdictions | American Journal of Comparative Law

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10. Chris Thornhill | Constitutional Law and Cultures of Violence | Historical Social Research

Congratulations to Guillaume Tusseau, editor of the new Research Handbook on Law and Utilitarianism. The book brings a utilitarian perspective to contemporary controversies in law and society. Featuring over 25 chapters written by scholars in law, philosophy and beyond, the book examines a rich variety of topics, including artificial intelligence, criminal law, environmental rights, religion and reproductive rights. This is another important publication edited by an outstanding scholar. 

The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism presents an Advanced Seminar on Constitutional Reform, a new four-week online course for all interested in constitution-making and constitutional change. Topics covered include: (1) the life and death of constitutions; (2) the design of constitutional reform procedures; (3) constitutional amendment versus constitutional dismemberment; and (4) the relationship between democracy and constitutional change. Readings will be circulated in advance at no cost to registrants. Open to all. Details here.

I recommend this lecture on Deliberative Minipublics & Constitutional Change by Seána Glennon, currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Public Law Center in the University of Ottawa. The lecture – delivered virtually at the Centre for Constitutional Studies at the University of Alberta – examines innovations in popular participation in constitutional change in Ireland, with potential applications to Canada and elsewhere. 

Ming-Sung Kuo has uploaded an excellent paper on the future of comparative constitutional studies. He presents four varieties of constitutional comparisons and evaluates each on its own terms, while also cautioning against the risks entailed by the proliferation of comparisons in constitutional studies beyond strictly doctrinal analysis. Entitled Four Matters of Interpretation: The Constitutional Phenomenon in Comparative Studies, his paper is forthcoming in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies.

Thank you!
As we approach the end of 2024, I thank each of my scholarly collaborators for all we have accomplished together this year. Four books in constitutional studies, each a joy to publish.

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Cities and the Constitution | McGill-Queen's University Press | with Alexandra Flynn, Nathalie Des Rosier, and our magnificent contributors

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The Past, Present, and Future of Canadian Cities | McGill-Queen's University Press | with Alexandra Flynn, Nathalie Des Rosier, and our amazing contributors

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2023 Global Review of Constitutional Reform | International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism | with David Landau, Pietro Faraguna, and Giulia Andrade, and our outstanding contributors

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2023 International Review of Constitutional Reform | International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism | with Luís Roberto Barroso, our extraordinary Associate Editors, and our exceptional contributors

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Each book includes early-career scholars, and each moreover generates new and important insights for the field. Thank you! 

Courts in Latin America have sometimes successfully protected democracy from would-be authoritarians. Drawing from Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico in their new paper titled Courts Against Backsliding: Lessons from Latin America, three scholars – Laura Gamboa, Benjamín García-Holgado, Ezequiel González-Ocantos – illustrate how “constitutional balancing” has at times slowed the descent toward autocratization.

In just a few days, Hart Publishing will release Li-ann Thio's book on The Rule of Law in Singapore as part of its series on the Rule of Law in Context. An expert in constitutional law, Professor Thio holds the Provost Chair in Law at the National University of Singapore and is a former Nominated Member of the Singapore Parliament.

If you have not yet been to a college football game here at the University of Texas at Austin, I recommend it! Come visit us between September and December. You will see that little in sports compares to the excitement of watching a Longhorns game among 100,000 fans. I attended the last game of 2024 with my friend and faculty colleague, Jordan Steiker, an expert on the constitutional and criminal law of capital punishment.