Democracy would essentially fail if, despite an electoral defeat, the government refused to concede office. This possibility is a constant uncertainty that democracy has to deal with, which makes it fragile in terms of its survival. This was on full display after the 2020 U.S. presidential...

The aim of this paper is to consider the role of legislative oversight of the cryptocurrency domain and it observes that there has been a growing legislative interest in understanding the socioeconomic role of cryptocurrencies. It further observes that the US Congress in light of recent debacles...

Democracy would essentially fail if, despite an electoral defeat, the government refused to concede office. This possibility is a constant uncertainty that democracy has to deal with, which makes it fragile in terms of its survival. This was on full display after the 2020 U.S. presidential...

The role of citizens' initiatives figures prominently in contemporary debates on constitutional change. A basic question is why are initiatives necessary in a representative democracy where candidates must already compete for the right to control policy? This paper offers one answer to this...

We study political polarization in a parliamentary setting dominated by strong parties. In addition to examining polarization along the left-right dimension, we consider political divergence between legislators belonging to the same political bloc. Are politicians’ background characteristics...

"Die Energiewende ist ein viel diskutiertes Thema im Bundestag - doch bleibt dabei auch der eigentliche Anspruch eines Transformationsprojekts bestehen? Andrea Amri-Henkel greift diese Frage in ihrer Diskursanalyse der Bundestagsdebatten von 1998 bis 2017 auf. Dazu entwickelt sie ein innovatives...

A country’s form of government has important economic and political consequences, but the determinants that lead countries to choose either parliamentary or presidential systems are largely unexplored. This paper studies this choice by analyzing the factors that make countries switch from...

How does opinion polarization over matters of moral conviction affect the legislative outcome of parliamentary institutions? Analysis reveals that in the relatively common case, in which a party's voting power is positively correlated with the public support of the convictions it represents, if...

In R (on the application of Privacy International) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal [2019] UKSC 22; [2019] 2 WLR 1219, the claimant sought judicial review of a decision of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) on the ground that the IPT had committed an error of law. But there was a preliminary...

This paper examines basic but very important questions in the democratic process: do individual candidates represent the will of their own district constituency, even in a parliamentary system with well-disciplined legislative parties? The answer is clearly yes: this paper demonstrates dyadic...

The Lisbon Treaty increased the European Parliament's powers over EU trade policy. Ten years after its entry into force it is timely to take stock of how the EP has made use of this leverage in shaping the EU's trade negotiations. Such an exercise benefits from a comparison with other...

"Die Energiewende ist ein viel diskutiertes Thema im Bundestag - doch bleibt dabei auch der eigentliche Anspruch eines Transformationsprojekts bestehen? Andrea Amri-Henkel greift diese Frage in ihrer Diskursanalyse der Bundestagsdebatten von 1998 bis 2017 auf. Dazu entwickelt sie ein innovatives...

This paper traces the evolution of deliberative institutions in India to understand the role of deliberation in democratic life, as well as the ways in which deliberative bodies influence, and are influenced by, entrenched social inequality. The paper first unpacks the historical roots of Indian...

This article focuses on the importance of parliamentary oversight of the extractive industries in the South African context, and examines the potential of the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) towards serving the South African parliament vis-à-vis oversight of extractive resources. It points to...

In a 2014 article published in the Adelaide Law Review, Professor Harold Bruff explained the U.S. executive power to an Australian audience. Bruff described the constitutions of Australia and the United States as “cousins”; they share some traits — such as federalism — but in other areas...

We use a change in the voting procedures of one of the two chambers of the Swiss parliament to explore how transparency affects the voting behavior of its members. Until 2013, the Council of States (Ständerat) had voted by a show of hands. While publicly observable at the time of the vote,...

The Treaty of Waitangi has repeatedly been affirmed as New Zealand's founding document, yet our constitutional arrangements rest on the untrammelled principle of parliamentary sovereignty. This paper argues that the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty is contrary to the sharing of powers...

Risikovermeidung scheint aktuell das Patentrezept für die Lösung all unserer Probleme zu sein. Zentralbanken ertränken die Gefahren unseres Wirtschafts- und Bankensystems mit Unmengen an Geld, und auch die Politik versucht, gesellschaftliche Missstände mit grosszügigen Geschenken unter den...

The paper commences by summarizing the economic geography of Ireland followed by an overview of the Irish legal system. While similar in many respects to the British system from which it is derived, Ireland has a constitution based on the American model, to which parliament is subject. Lawyers...

During the current debt crisis in Europe a number of unelected ministers and even prime-ministers have been appointed to government to resolve the economic crisis. Commentators argue that such appointments hurt democracy and are unlikely to succeed. However, appointments of un-elected...

This paper discusses the trends and patterns regarding the participation of women and men in parliamentary politics in Zimbabwe from the first democratic elections in 1980 to the 2008 elections in the context of global and regional trends. The main objective of this paper is to review both...