event
Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
Tuesday
29
October
Kim Scheppele

The Life and Death of Constitutions

Kim Lane Scheppele , Princeton University
, -

Auditorium Ivan Pictet, Maison de la paix, Geneva

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Around the world, democratic citizenries are electing leaders who proceed to dismantle previously existing constitutional constraints on the power of the executive. From Hungary and Poland, to Venezuela and Ecuador, to Turkey and Russia, and perhaps even to the United States, democratically elected leaders are eschewing checks and balances and rejecting independent judiciaries, media and civil society. These new autocratic leaders appear wildly popular and are often reelected. Why have democratically elected leaders with autocratic aspirations appeared across such a wide array of democratic governments at once? How have they undermined constitutional government and yet claimed democratic legitimacy? And what can be done to restore the promise of constitutionalism?
 

Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Her work focuses on the intersection of constitutional and international law, particularly in constitutional systems under stress. Her many publications on both post-1989 constitutional transitions and on post-9/11 constitutional challenges have appeared in law reviews, social science journals and multiple languages. In the last two years, she has been a public commentator on the transformation of Hungary from a constitutional-democratic state to one that risks breaching constitutional principles of the European Union.

This event is part of the lecture series on "Dismantling the Rule of Law" organised by the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.

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