Constitutional Law Unit caps 2018 with three new legal studies papers

The Constitutional Law Unit in the Faculty of Law and Public Administration at Birzeit University, under the support and supervision of the H.H. Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Chair in Constitutional and International Law, recently released three papers as part of Birzeit’s Working Papers Series in Legal Studies. 

The first paper, authored by Asem Khalil, a professor of law at Birzeit University and vice president for community affairs, and entitled “State of Necessity From the Perspective of Comparative Constitutional Law,” explores whether the state of necessity, as it exists within and outside the scope of the law, enables state officials and the executive to escape harmful consequences of rigid adherence to a rule of law in all circumstances, or whether it can be invoked to preclude the wrongfulness of their actions. 

The second paper, written by Newar Bdair and entitled “The Constituent Power,” delves into the mechanisms for adopting a new written constitution or amending it, and the restrictions imposed upon that constituent power. 

The third and final paper, by Nora Taha, was entitled “Constructing Places, De-constructing Rights: Understanding the Right to Housing in the Palestinian Context.” In the paper, Taha addresses the socio-economic rights in the Palestinian context and identifies several elements that can re-interpret how an understanding of those rights was established. 

These three papers bring the total number of papers published under Birzeit’s Working Papers Series in Legal Studies to 12 in 2018 - the series also published 12 papers in 2017. 

The Birzeit’s Working Papers Series in Legal Studies is an electronic series that publishes legal research papers – specifically in the field of public law – that would benefit students, professors, researchers, and professionals in these disciplines in Palestine and the Arab countries. The series comprises four categories: Translated Articles; the Comparative Arab Constitutional Law Encyclopedia Project; Master’s Research Papers; and Position Papers. A new category - Bachelor’s Research Papers - will be launched next year. 

You can view the papers published in this series by visiting this link.