August 1, 2012 · 01:54

Myanmar state minister challenges law

[I had meant to post this on July 17, but it apparently was never uploaded. I apologize if this has already become old news]

Myanmar’s Constitutional Tribunal received its third case in 2012, and looks to mark another first for the court. The Mon State Hluttaw Speaker has challenged a law as unconstitutional. This is the first time a state or region official has asked the tribunal to strike down a law. The New Light of Myanmar article doesn’t mention which law is being challenged. All I know so far is that the law is a Mon State law – as expected given that all of the tribunal judges are appointed by the Union government and would be unlikely to rule against the national government. Nonetheless, this will be the court’s first “federalism” decision so it will be interesting to see how it handles the petition.

The full article is reprinted below:

Constitutional Tribunal of the State hears enquiry

The Mon State Hluttaw Speaker has asked through the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Speaker to the Constitutional Tribunal of the Union to interpret the following: whether the legislation of the State Hluttaw in accordance with Schedule (2) of Section 188 of the Constitution under Section 326 (b) of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Union Law is against the Section 446 of the Constitution or not, or whether the legislation shall be done without violation of the Section 446 of the Constitution; in case some existing laws and some provisions in the existing laws are different from and/or ambiguously confused with provisions in Schedule (2) of the Section 188 of the Constitution, whether these laws and provisions shall be still in effect as they are not revoked or amended yet; if some existing laws and some provisions in the existing laws are different from and/or ambiguously confused with provisions in Schedule (2) of the Section 188 of the Constitution, proceedings can be made only after revoking or amending in accordance with Section 446 of the Constitution. The tribunal comprising Chairman of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Union and all its members heard the document No. 3/2012 at Room No. 1 at 10 am this morning.—MNA

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August 1, 2012 · 01:50

Newmont not for sale (Indonesia)

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) has barred the central government from purchasing a 7% stake in Newmont Mining’s Indonesian assets. According to The Jakarta Post, the majority argued that the government needed to submit the purchase to the House of Representatives (DPR) first for inclusion into the budget.

However, the decision was a close, with 4 dissenters. The dissenters argued that the state has a constitutional obligation under Article 33 to own and manage natural resources (as exemplified by the 2004 Electricity case).

It seems like the majority opinion focused on the procedural issue of legislative approval, not whether the state can purchase the shares. The case does not include any concurring opinions, so it is not yet clear to me whether the majority would refuse to uphold the sale next year if the DPR includes it in the budget.

Full decision (in Indonesian) available here.

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June 28, 2012 · 02:53

The future of Philippine judicial reform?

In the aftermath of Chief Justice Corona’s impeachment, Steven Rood and Carolyn Mercado have penned their thoughts on the prospects for judicial reform for the Asia Foundation’s blog. It’s a compact summary of prior reforms and will certainly make many hearken back to the Davide era.

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June 7, 2012 · 08:24

Myanmar Constitutional Tribunal website!

It’s here – the Myanmar Constitutional Tribunal has a new website: http://www.ctmyanmar.org.mm/. Not only that, it has English versions of its 2011 cases as well. As of now, the site is only in Burmese, but an English translation is expected soon. I’ve read both of the 2011 cases and thought they were actually quite interesting and had surprisingly good legal reasoning, especially given the lack of any sort of constitutional jurisprudence in the country for the past 50 years. I’ll write more about the cases at some point in the future – for now, enjoy the new website.

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June 3, 2012 · 09:21

Are less majeste cases important enough

First of all, sorry for the lack of posts, despite the huge amount of law-related news from the Philippines and other parts of SEA. I was in Myanmar last month, and between a slow internet connection and being busy with meetings, I didn’t have much time to post. However, I did obtain a copy of the Constitutional Tribunal’s 2011 decisions and learned a few interesting things about the court.

Until I have time to write about that trip, here is a very in-depth article about the Thai Constitutional Court’s recent decision on a lesse majeste case. Elizabeth Fitzgerald tries to understand the court’s reasoning for dismissing the petitioner’s challenge against the constitutionality of the lesse majeste laws. Unfortunately, the court’s reasoning is still somewhat unclear after having read the article, but I guess that is Ms. Fitzgerald’s point.

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Filed under constitution, lesse majeste, Thailand