Democratic Constitutional Reform in Chile: Looking Back and Forward

Chile recently saw the defeat at a national referendum of a proposed new democratic constitution. What should we make of this result, and what does it mean for the future of democratic constitutional reform in Chile and globally? Did Chilean constitution-makers try to achieve too much, too fast? Wa…

Post-Juristocracy - the End of Powerful Courts?

This podcast discusses the notion of ‘post-juristocracy’ – whether we're seeing the end of the broad global shift toward more powerful courts worldwide, which has been an ongoing trend for the almost 80 years post-World War II. These developments include the declining legitimacy of apex courts in s…

Inside Putin's Crackdown on Russia's Oldest Constitutional Rights Group

Associate Professor William Partlett speaks with Marina Agaltsova about her work at Memorial Human Rights Centre in Moscow and why that organisation is now facing liquidation.

Landmark judgments, constitutional revolutions and comparative constitutional law

The conceptualisation of landmark judgment and constitutional revolution is a topic that is new and to a certain extent quite original. While broadly used by scholars, lawmakers and the judiciary, until recently these two concepts have never received adequate theorisation in comparative constitutio…

Arab Constitutionalism: An Interview with Zaid Al Ali

Constitutional Café returns for a second season with an interview on a bold new book. Zaid Al Ali, Senior Programme Officer for International IDEA, joins Adrienne Stone to discuss his book, (2021) that examines the 2011 uprisings that swept across the Arab world in 2011. The conversation ranges wid…

Season 2 Trailer

Constitutional Cafe comes to you from the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at the Melbourne Law School. It is a place for scholarly but informal and fun conversations about constitutions and constitutional law with a global focus. If COVID has kept you from academic travel and you have…

The Global South in Comparative Constitutional Law

Why talk about the ‘global south’ in comparative constitutional law? In what ways does it matter and to whom? In this podcast episode Dinesha Samararatne, Senior Research Associate of the Laureate Program explores these and related questions, in conversation with Prof Cheryl Saunders,Laureate Profe…

Languages and Comparative Constitutional Method

This episode of the podcast focuses on an underexplored theme in comparative constitutional law methodology: how languages shape the legal research in the field. The point of departure of the conversation is whether being proficient in a foreign language is required to engage in comparative constit…

Post-Soviet Eurasian Constitutionalism

This podcast explores constitutional law in the understudied world of post-Soviet Eurasia. The discussion between the three guests – who are themselves both scholars and advocates based in three different countries in the region— demonstrates both the diversity of the region and the critical import…

Constitutional Dimensions of Academic Freedom

‘Academic freedom’ is an idea close to the hearts of all constitutional scholars. But what are the constitutional dimensions of the principle? Given recent attacks on academic freedom in democracies as well authoritarian regimes, a better understanding is urgently required. In this episode, we disc…