What can we expect in 2026 for constitutionalism, democracy, and the rule of law? Five big questions will prevail over others. 

1. Sustainable Constitutionalism: How can constitutions address climate change, global inequalities, and the technological revolution presently underway? 

2. Democratic Resilience and Backsliding: What leads to successful democratic consolidation in post-authoritarian collapses, and how to design constitutions to resist threats to the separation of powers and independent institutions?

3. Fragile States and Peacebuilding: When does reconciliatory constitutionalism succeed, and under what conditions can states preserve human rights amidst ongoing instability while ensuring state security? 

4. Global Governance: Will multilateralism once again become ascendant among democratic states, this time rooted in concrete constitutional rules rather than abstract constitutional principles?

5. New Pathways to Reform: What new approaches and frameworks will constitutional actors engineer to address enduring challenges in self-governance, in light of the repeated failures of current models for reform? 

***

The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism will continue to create opportunities to discuss these questions – and hopefully to make progress in answering them in the service of the values of constitutionalism, democracy, and the rule of law. All are welcome, always, to participate in our programs. Stay tuned for ways to join the conversation.

Exciting news for students: Washington University in St. Louis will host a Model Constitutional Convention on May 21-24, 2026. This will be an amazing experience for students across the United States to negotiate amendments to the U.S. Constitution under conditions similar to America’s first Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

***

There is no cost to participate. In fact, students selected to participate in this event will receive a stipend to cover the cost of their travel, and they will be provided food and lodging while at the Convention. The application is now open here. If you have any questions about the program, check out the FAQ here. The Constitutional Studies Program is pleased to co-sponsor this important program on the U.S. Constitution.

Congratulations to Mayieka Oira Nickson, recently awarded a doctorate in law from the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, for his excellent dissertation titled The African Quest for a Constitution's Basic Structure: Securing Constitutional Core Legitimacy. The doctoral examining panel was chaired by Angioletta Sperti and consisted of Edoardo Chiti and me. This outstanding dissertation was supervised by Giuseppe Martinico. Congratulations to the newest doctor in law!

 The Office of the Brazilian Presidency has published its own scholarly legal journal since 1999. The latest issue – Volume 27, Number 143 – has just been published. It includes articles on digital sovereignty, access to justice, artificial intelligence, transnational litigation, Mercosur, biosurveillance, the Rome Statute, and more. The entire archive is available here.

***
I am pleased to be a member of the Editorial Board. If you would like to submit a paper for publication, please let me know. 

In my new paper titled Against Unamendability, I make the case that unamendability is not a technology worth encoding in any constitution. I offer detailed recommendations for designing constitutions to be always amendable (but not easily amendable). And I argue that unamendability should be rejected in all but exceptional cases. The paper is available here for free download.

***

In the paper, I also announce the results of a first-of-its-kind global survey of constitutional experts showing that there are costs to legality and legitimacy when incumbents exploit the mechanisms of law to overcome an unamendable constitution. Comments are welcome!

Congratulations to Carlos Bernal, the new David Boies Distinguished Chair in Law at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. A frequent lecturer and visiting professor at universities all around the world, he is one of the world's most influential scholars in comparative constitutionalism, human rights, and legal theory. He currently ranks as the second-most cited scholar in comparative constitutional law – in the world. He is a former justice of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, former Commissioner on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and a distinguished professor at the Universidad de La Sabana. He officially began his appointment at Tulane University on January 1. Congratulations!

Registration is now open for the Central European University's summer course on Constitution-Building in Africa. The course is directed by Markus Böckenförde and Christina Murray, and as always features an excellent roster of lecturers. Details are available here.

All are welcome to participate in our Workshop on Constitution-Making and Constitutional Reform, to be held at the World Congress of Constitutional Law in Bogotá on July 6-10, 2026. I am looking forward to co-hosting this Workshop with Luisa Fernanda García Lopez and Gonzalo Andrés Ramírez Cleves, two dear colleagues. We invite your submissions in English, French, or Spanish until January 23, 2026. You may submit your abstract here. It will be a pleasure to learn from your ideas and analysis about how constitutions are made and remade. Join us in Workshop #88!

A new book, edited by Erin Daly, offers a forward-looking research agenda for the study of human dignity. In Human Dignity and the Law, scholars share fresh perspectives that light the path to new approaches, ideas, and perspectives. Over one dozen scholars have joined forces to produce this excellent resource for research into human dignity.

Later this month, Oren Tamir will convene an important virtual discussion on Central Bank Independence in Global Perspective, featuring a spectacular roster of speakers, each listed below. Registration is available here.

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to the editorial team at Díkaion for hosting this symposium, to my dear friend Milton César Jiménez Ramírez for initiating this symposium, and to amazing scholars María Paz Avila, Carlos Bernal Pulido, Luisa Fernanda García López, Milton César Jiménez Ramírez, Fabio Pulido, Daniela Salazar, Raquel Sarria Acosta, and María Yépez for their challenging and enriching comments on my book. My thanks, always, to Vicente F. Benítez R. and Julián Daniel González Escallón for their translation of the book from its original English into Spanish. My heart is full of gratitude to each of these special persons for the truly priceless gift they have given me.

Recent governance challenges in France have prompted calls for a new constitution. Enacting on a new constitution for France would inaugurate the Sixth Republic. In an essay published recently in the New York Times, one commentator observed that polls reveal strong French support the idea of a new constitution. He observes also that the “willingness to embrace change stems from a healthy civic tradition in which constitutions are viewed not as sacrosanct texts but as guiding documents that can be updated to reflect the needs of a changing country.”

In his new paper, Malcolm Langford describes the international field of social rights as a complex adaptive system. Titled Social Rights and International Law, the paper examines the rise of international legal systems for social rights and identifies the major moments that led to the emergence of these systems. The paper also investigates the impact of social rights in international law on domestic constitutional law. The full draft is available here.

My theory and analysis of Constitutional Amendment and Dismemberment is now published in Persian! In the book, I distinguish amendments from dismemberments according to the process of enactment and the magnitude of the change they bring to constitutions. Details on the Persian translation are available here. The original English version is available here.

***

My warmest thanks to Javad Yahyazadeh for his expert translation. He recently completed his doctoral dissertation titled A Comparative Study on the Classification of Constitutional Unamendability, an outstanding analysis of unamendable rules, norms, and practices in constitutional states. My deepest gratitude to the Doxa Cultural Institute for designing, typesetting, and ultimately publishing this beautiful translation.

Registration is now open for the 3rd edition of our week-long seminar, organized with the UEES Graduate School of Law, led by Pablo Alarcón Peña. Faculty, students, and all interested persons are welcome to register. Join us! 

***

This edition will feature 12 faculty lecturers, all pictured below. We will also enjoy excursions to the Supreme Court of Texas, the Texas State Capitol, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library.  And we will (of course) enjoy Texas BBQ on more than one occasion. All are welcome! 

My entire family spent the Christmas season in Mexico. It was my mother's first time in this beautiful country. We ate delicious food, visited some scenic sites, and enjoyed a special Christmas Eve service at a local church. One of the highlights of the week was finding the best fruit stand at a local market and sharing some delicious coconut water with my mom. We each had two whole coconuts! Merry belated Christmas to all who celebrate this special occasion, and happy 2026 to all! Hope to see you soon.