Changing the rules mid-game. Legislative interference in specific pending cases: separation of powers and fair trial
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Anna Jasiak
Researcher at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Faculty of Law, Tilburg University, The Netherlands and member of the Centre for Legislative Studies at the same faculty
Abstract
Legislatures sometimes interfere in judicial proceedings when they expect the outcome to be politically undesirable. The resulting ad hoc laws are applicable in cases known in advance, although they may appear to be neutral, general and prospective. Such laws force the courts to decide the case in favor of the State, making continued litigation pointless for the other party. Legislation of this kind may seriously threaten the rule of law, fundamental rights, including the right to a fair trial and the separation of powers. In this article, recent examples will be presented, explaining and comparing the position of the European Court of Human Rights and the U.S. Supreme Court.
About the author
Researcher at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Faculty of Law, Tilburg University, The Netherlands and member of the Centre for Legislative Studies at the same faculty
© 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Inhalt
- Preface
- Preface
- Articles
- Learning From Others: The Scalia-Breyer Debate and the Benefits of Foreign Sources of Law to U.S. Constitutional Interpretation of Counter-Terrorism Initiatives
- Changing the rules mid-game. Legislative interference in specific pending cases: separation of powers and fair trial
- Democracy's Twin Challenges: Hans Kelsen and the Problem of Extremist Speech
- Family Protection and Deportations or Removals
- Constitutional Developments in Austria
- Focus: Bona fides
- Elimination of tenure-track contract model for university assistants – no infringement of principle of equality
- Interference in a public-law contract by the legislator without justification – a violation of the principle of equality
- No infringement of the principle of equal treatment by abolition of the death grant in the doctor's law of obligations
- EMA@ICL
- Liberty behind closed doors …? Involuntary placement and medical treatment in psychiatric institutions from the human rights perspective
- Book Reviews
- Ralph Wilde, International Territorial Administration: How Trusteeship and the Civilizing Mission Never Went Away, Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-199-27432-1, 640 pp.
Articles in the same Issue
- Inhalt
- Preface
- Preface
- Articles
- Learning From Others: The Scalia-Breyer Debate and the Benefits of Foreign Sources of Law to U.S. Constitutional Interpretation of Counter-Terrorism Initiatives
- Changing the rules mid-game. Legislative interference in specific pending cases: separation of powers and fair trial
- Democracy's Twin Challenges: Hans Kelsen and the Problem of Extremist Speech
- Family Protection and Deportations or Removals
- Constitutional Developments in Austria
- Focus: Bona fides
- Elimination of tenure-track contract model for university assistants – no infringement of principle of equality
- Interference in a public-law contract by the legislator without justification – a violation of the principle of equality
- No infringement of the principle of equal treatment by abolition of the death grant in the doctor's law of obligations
- EMA@ICL
- Liberty behind closed doors …? Involuntary placement and medical treatment in psychiatric institutions from the human rights perspective
- Book Reviews
- Ralph Wilde, International Territorial Administration: How Trusteeship and the Civilizing Mission Never Went Away, Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-199-27432-1, 640 pp.
