The 2025 Global Summit on Constitutionalism is almost here! To accommodate those who cannot join us here in Austin, we will live stream all four plenary sessions. Registration details follow below. All are welcome!
The Global Summit is co-hosted by the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism and the Constitutional Studies Program here at the University of Texas at Austin. We look forward to seeing many of you here!
The Prize is awarded by the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism to recognize the most important book published during the previous calendar year, as determined by scholars of constitutional studies. ***
Thank you to the Expert Council for nominating the original 16 finalists for the 2024 Book of the Year prize.
Click here to sign-up to receive it directly from me.
Registration is Open
All are welcome to join us for a special week-long in-person course here at the University of Texas at Austin: Constitutionalism in the US and the World, organized jointly with the UEES Graduate School of Law, led by Pablo Alarcón Peña. I will direct this course featuring 10 faculty lecturers, all pictured below. In addition to lectures and excursions, the program will (of course) feature Texas BBQ. Registration is now open. Join us!
*** We will host an information session live on Zoom on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, at 6:00pm Central Time | 7:00pm Eastern Time. Here is the Zoom link: https://cedia.zoom.us/j/82401500084.
Post-Conflict Constitution-Making
Later this month, the Routledge Series in Comparative Constitutional Change will publish a new book by Katrin Seidel titled Internationalised Constitution Making and State Formation. The book examines post-conflict constitution-making in Somaliland and South Sudan, two vastly understudied jurisdictions in comparative constitutionalism. The author does a great service to the field by shining a spotlight on these two African jurisdictions. It is an important book that will inform how we evaluate the role of foreign actors and international institutions in domestic constitution-making.
Former Politicians as Judges
It is not uncommon for former politicians to serve on constitutional courts. We have seen this practice all around the world. Does it have costs? What are its benefits? In his forthcoming book, Mathias Möschel examines the phenomenon of former politicians as judges in Austria, France, Germany, and Italy. The book is titled Ex-Ministers as Constitutional Judges. It will be published in the Oxford Series in Comparative Constitutionalism.
Three Questions with Yvonne Tew
Meet Yvonne Tew, the Anne Fleming Research Professor and Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. She serves also as the Faculty Director of the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London. Professor Tew holds doctoral and bachelor degrees from the University of Cambridge and a master's degree from Harvard University.
***
What are you currently writing?
My recent research project, Strategic Judicial Empowerment, just published in the American Journal of Comparative Law, explores the phenomenon of judicial self-empowerment. I’m interested in the question of: How can courts with fragile authority establish and enhance judicial power? This article offers an account of how and when courts deploy various strategies aimed at enhancing their institutional position vis-à-vis other branches of government. Drawing on examples from Pakistan, Malawi, Malaysia, and the U.K., it explores the ways in which judges use tools of statecraft to enhance their role in the constitutional order.
***
What are you planning to write next?
I’m interested in expanding my work on courts and constitutional adjudication to focus on a different—somewhat surprising—institutional actor: the monarchy. The constitutional monarch is a non-majoritarian, non-electoral institution that has, in recent times, played a critical role in the government formation and functioning of some political systems. This next research project takes a global perspective on the monarchy in an age of constitutional democracy.
***
Which one of your publications (just one!) do you recommend we read to learn more about you and your work?
It would have to be Constitutional Statecraft in Asian Courts, published by Oxford University Press in 2020. This book explores how courts engage in constitutional state-building in aspiring, yet deeply fragile, democracies in Asia. It offers an in-depth look at contemporary Southeast Asia, explaining how courts in emerging democracies, like Malaysia and Singapore, protect and construct constitutionalism even as they confront powerful dominant parties and negotiate political transitions. One of the reasons why I selected this publication is that the project of the book lies at the intersection of my intellectual passion and personal experiences.
***
Editor's Note:If you would like to nominate someone for a future edition of “Three Questions,” please let me know!
The Supreme Court of Mexico has ruled that the San Juan de Aragón Zoo must take action to improve Ely's health, well-being, and living conditions. Ely has been held for 13 years. To learn more about the comparative constitutional law of animal rights, I recommend this excellent paper.
A Visit to Norman
I recently traveled to the University of Oklahoma to speak at a conference on Presidential Power and the Constitution, hosted by the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage, directed by Jeremy Bailey, with whom I am pictured below My remarks were titled Lincoln's Lost Legacy: Presidential Powers in Constitutional Amendment. While on campus, I made sure to do a walking tour. The academic buildings are striking, both in size and style. The same is true of the football stadium, known as the “Palace on the Prairie.” It seats over 80,000 spectators. Of course, no visit to Oklahoma is complete without a steak dinner. That is why it was my duty to try a 32 ounce Wagyu bone-in ribeye at Benvenuti's. Before-and-after photos follow further down below. The verdict is in: delicious!
Was this email forwarded to you by someone else?
Click here to sign-up to receive it directly from me.
The mission of the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism is to marshal knowledge and experience to build a world of opportunity, liberty, and dignity for all.
727 East Dean Keeton Street Austin, TX 78705, United States
