Published by De Gruyter

Volume 15 Issue 2

Issue of ICL Journal

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available June 3, 2021

Research Articles

June 3, 2021

Practice Makes Dialogue: Reconceptualizing Constitutional Interaction between Courts and Legislatures

Bell E Yosef

Page range: 115-161

Abstract

The question of how to understand and conceptualize inter-institutional interaction between courts and legislatures, particularly in the context of constitutional challenges, has drawn considerable attention over the years. This question is of special importance to the apprehension of constitutional dialogue as simultaneously describing and shaping constitutional interaction. This article focuses on the descriptive aspects of the constitutional dialogue and through them proposes a reconceptualization of constitutional dialogue, which is not based on the mere existence of legislative responses or the number thereof, or on the existence of different structural constitutional mechanisms. Instead, this reconceptualization is based on the de facto use in constitutional practices during the routine constitutional examination process, by the judiciary and political branches altogether. The article introduces a breadth-and-depth approach, which observes many constitutional decisions and legislative responses and uses them to analyze the nature of courts-legislatures dynamics. These insights are derived not only from the mere existence of a ruling or a statute, but also from the content and design of the institutional outcome thereof. The conclusions drawn using this approach are comprehensive, providing insight into the constitutional and dialogic interaction between courts and legislatures in each constitutional system, as well as identifying trends and changes as they occur. The article also offers an application of this approach to Israeli jurisprudence, illuminating the depth and complexity of this interaction, and enabling us to recognize it as a constitutional system with strong dialogic characteristics.

June 3, 2021

Responding to Democratic Decay in South Asia: The ‘Federalism Constraint’ on Regional Emergency Powers in India

Kritika Vohra

Page range: 163-206

Abstract

2020 marked the 14th consecutive year of democratic decline in the world, and South Asia has been no exception to this global phenomenon. This paper focuses on one particularly egregious onslaught on democracy in India. In August 2019, the Indian government stripped the former state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status under the Constitution of India, and reorganized its territory into two union territories. The government’s use of its regional emergency powers provided the legal basis for operationalizing these changes. Their use in this manner raises the question of the proper scope of these powers, independently of whether the proclamation of the regional emergency was constitutionally valid. What, if any, are the substantive limitations that constrain the center’s exercise of regional emergency powers? This paper offers a partial response to this question. It relies on the basic structure doctrine to theorize a substantive limitation on their exercise and situates this limitation in the wider legal and historical landscape on regional emergency powers. Articulating it as the ‘Federalism Constraint’, the paper argues that, even when a validly proclaimed regional emergency is in force in a state, the center cannot exercise its regional emergency powers to effect a permanent change to the detriment of the state, as doing so would damage federalism, a basic feature of the Constitution. On this basis, the paper argues that the recent changes to the status of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir are unconstitutional.

Open Access June 3, 2021

Compulsory Vaccination in a Fundamental Rights Perspective: Lessons from the ECtHR

Anja Krasser

Page range: 207-233

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Abstract

The multiple COVID-19 vaccines developed over the past months are typically thought of as the only means to meet the challenges posed by the current pandemic. Still, public opinion on vaccines is heavily divided. And, of course, discussions about compulsory vaccination, oftentimes based on fundamental rights arguments, tend to become heated. This note This note builds on the arguments developed in the author’s master thesis Anja Krasser, ‘Die grundrechtliche Zulässigkeit einer Impfpflicht in Österreich’ (Universität Graz 2019) which have previously been summarized in Anja Krasser, ‘Zur grundrechtlichen Zulässigkeit einer Impfpflicht’ (2020) 2020/206 RdM 136. analyses the issues at hand based on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Book Review

June 3, 2021

Ester Herlin-Karnell: The Constitutional Structure of Europe’s Area of ‘Freedom, Security and Justice’ and the Right to Justification

Attila Vincze

Page range: 235-236

About this journal

Objective
The Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law (ICL Journal) is dedicated to the advancement of legal knowledge in the field of International Constitutional Law. Advised by a body of distinguished jurists the Journal publishes high-standard peer-reviewed contributions by scholars and legal professionals from around the globe. 　

Topics

European Constitutional Law
Public International Law
Constitutionalization of International Law
Internationalization of Constitutional Law
Migration of Constitutional Ideas
Legal Theory
Comparative Constitutional Law

By linking these select perspectives the Journal endorses an approach towards a coherent understanding of International Constitutional Law, thus preparing the ground for novel answers to the challenges of a changing global legal framework. The Journal addresses the global scientific community, scholars and researchers in various disciplines working in the field of International Constitutional Law. Moreover, the Journal provides information on recent constitutional developments relevant to practitioners as well as academics, particularly by monitoring the case law of Constitutional Courts in Central and Eastern Europe.

Article formats
Research articles, notes & essays, reports, book reviews.

Volume 15 Issue 2

Issue of ICL Journal

Frontmatter

Practice Makes Dialogue: Reconceptualizing Constitutional Interaction between Courts and Legislatures

Abstract

Responding to Democratic Decay in South Asia: The ‘Federalism Constraint’ on Regional Emergency Powers in India

Abstract

Compulsory Vaccination in a Fundamental Rights Perspective: Lessons from the ECtHR

Abstract

Ester Herlin-Karnell: The Constitutional Structure of Europe’s Area of ‘Freedom, Security and Justice’ and the Right to Justification