Constitutionalism in Illiberal Democracies

IACL Research Groups
Constitutionalism in Illiberal Democracies

The research group addresses in comparative perspective the modern current of illiberal constitutionalism and the challenges it poses on accepted notions of constitutional law.

Focus

In the twenty years since the end of the last ‘wave of democratization’ it has become clear that, along with traditional liberal-constitutional democracies, an important number of countries have embraced different forms of ‘illiberal’ democracy, that is, they are regimes in which there are competitive elections of political authorities but that concentrate power around the executive office, to the point that even the courts are under the control of the government.

Even though in the past there have been many authoritarian, semi authoritarian and even totalitarian regimes which pretended to cloak their true nature under a constitution, recent examples have showed a current of thought which tries to present these regimes as a new and more efficient type of constitutionalism, putting into question long established notions of constitutional government.

This development has examples in different areas of the world, thus becoming a subject of study with great interest for scholars globally, in line with the international nature of the IACL. However, the research group will not be limited to the study of current examples of this type of ‘constitutionalism’, but may also include the analysis of past examples, in order to explore similarities, identify possible patterns of authoritarian ‘constitutionalism’ and draw lessons which may help to better understand this phenomenon. The examination will not focus only on specific examples of this current, but will also undertake to single out common features among those different examples.

 Members 

1. General Theory of Illiberal Constitutionalism
   Ricardo Ramirez Calvo (coordinator) – Universidad del Salvador/ Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina)
   Justin Frosini – Università Bocconi/CCSDD (Italy)
   Giorgio Grasso – Università dell’Insubria (Italy)
   Donna Greschner – University of Victoria (Canada)
   Vicki Jackson – Harvard Law School (USA)
   Jason Mazzone – University of Illinois (USA)
   Pablo Riberi – Universidad Cordoba (Argentina)
   Mark Tushnet – Harvard Law School (USA)
   
   
2. Illiberal Elements in Consolidated Democracies 
   Sergio Gerotto (coordinator) – Università di Padova/CCSDD (Italy)
   Giorgio Grasso – Università dell’Insubria (Italy) 
   Donna Greschner – University of Victoria (Canada)
   Sara Pennicino – Università di Padova/CCSDD (Italy)
   German Teruel Lozano – Tribunal Constitucional (Spain)
   
   
3. Latin America
   Manuel García-Mansilla (coordinator) – Universidad Austral (Argentina)
   Javier Andres Couso Salas - Universidad Diego Portales (Chile)
   Sebastian Elias – Universidad de San Andres (Argentina)
   Tom Ginsburg – University of Chicago Law School (USA)
   Ricardo Ramirez Calvo – Universidad del Salvador/ Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina)
   
   
4. Eastern Europe and Eurasia
   Carna Pistan (coordinator) – Università di Bologna/CCSDD (Italy)
   Bertrand Mathieu – Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France)
   
   
5. Asia
   Andrew Harding (coordinator) ¬ ¬– Centre for Asian Legal Studies, NUS (Singapore)
   Tom Ginsburg – University of Chicago Law School (USA)
   Jack Lee – Centre for Asian Legal Studies, NUS (Singapore)
   Peter Leyland – School of Oriental and African Studies (UK)
   Thio Li-ann – Centre for Asian Legal Studies, NUS (Singapore)
   Jaclyn Neo – Centre for Asian Legal Studies, NUS (Singapore)
   Bui Ngoc Son – Centre for Asian Legal Studies, NUS (Singapore)
   Kevin Tan – Centre for Asian Legal Studies, NUS (Singapore)
   Shucheng Wang – City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
   
   
6. Africa
   Francesco Biagi (coordinator) – Università di Bologna/CCSDD (Italy)
   Justin Frosini – Università Bocconi/CCSDD (Italy)
   Fabrizio Petrucco – Università dell’Insubria/CCSDD (Italy)

Tentative Schedule of Events

The events that we have scheduled so far are the following:

28th April 2016
Workshop, Sub-group on “General Theory of Illiberal Constitutionalism”
Venue: Bocconi University, Milan - Italy

European Autumn 2015/Spring 2016
Seminar Series on “Democratisation in Central Asia”, Sub-group on “Eurasia”
Venue: Johns Hopkins University, Bologna & Bocconi University, Milan – Italy

European Autumn 2016
Workshop, Sub-group on "Illiberal Elements in Consolidated Democracies"
Venue: University of Padova - Italy

European Spring 2017
2-day International Congress on "Constitutionalism in Illiberal Democracies"
Venue: Buenos Aires – Argentina

Websites

www.ccsdd.org

 Contact Deatils

The research group is jointly coordinated bys  and .

Co-coordinators:

Professor Justin O. Frosini ( Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. )
Professor Ricardo Ramirez-Calvo ( Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. )