JSI Seminar Series: Legitimate Crowdsourced Constitution-Making
11 May 2017
Registration
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Legitimate Crowdsourced Constitution-Making
Speaker: Carlos Bernal, Macquarie Law School
Thispaper offers a critical analysis of the essential features of crowdsourced constitution-making, its potential for enhancing democratic participation and legitimacy, and its challenges and risks. On-line constitution-making activities give rise to opportunities and challenges. They open-up fresh possibilities for including individuals and groups previously excluded from constitution-making deliberations and decisions. They may also increase equity and transparency in deliberative processes, and enhance legitimacy of constitutional outcomes. However, at the same time, these activities create the challenge of setting constraints for ensuring that only appropriate agents will engage in the relevant constitutional deliberations and decision-making with fairness and respect for the rule of law and basic democratic values. Within this context, this paper sets up a general framework for maximizing opportunities, while, at the same time, mitigating risks and challenges of crowdsourced constitution-making.
About the Speaker
Carlos Bernal is an Associate Professor at Macquarie Law School (Sydney, Australia). His qualifications include a LL.B. from the University Externado of Colombia (Bogotá - Colombia) (1996), a S.J.D. from the University of Salamanca (Spain) (2001), and a M.A. (2008) and a Ph.D. in Philosophy (2011) from the University of Florida (U.S.A). He has held a visiting professorship at the University of Paris X (Nanterre), and Senior Research Fellowships at the Yale Law School and the Max Plack Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg). His scholarship focuses on constitutional rights' interpretation, comparative constitutional change, general jurisprudence - in particular on the intersection between social ontology and legal theory - and the philosophical foundations of tort law. At the present time, he is carrying out a research project on constitutionalism and democratic participation by means of online platforms. He supervises doctoral students in comparative constitutional law and legal theory.
CPD Points: 2
*Please note the date of this event has changed to 11 May (previously 4 May)*
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, University of Sydney
Cost: Complimentary, however registration is essential.
Contact: Professional Learning & Community Engagement
Phone: 02 9351 0429
