Constitutional silence on election postponement in Ethiopia amidst a pandemic: A critique of constitutional interpretation

Election postponement in Ethiopia, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has raised critical constitutional questions that have never been really thought before in the countrys constitutional law jurisprudence. This is because the state of emergency measure in Ethiopia, due to the spread of COVID-19, is in conflict with constitutional deadlines for elections. The constitutional lacuna is complicated by the absence of explicit constitutional provisions that indisputably govern election postponement. Although any legal measures to postpone election schedule and pass constitutional deadlock is far from simple, the Ethiopian government has suggested four possible options to the constitutional dilemma: dissolving the parliament, declaring state of emergency, amendment of the Constitution and constitutional interpretation. Finally, the House of Federation (HoF), the Ethiopian upper House entrusted to interpret the constitution decided and postponed the election indefinitely until the pandemic no longer poses a risk to public health confirmed by the parliament which has direct vested interest in the outcome. This research investigates whether the constitutional interpretation option adheres to the premises of the Ethiopian Constitution or is it extra constitutional. Accordingly, the HoF provided superficial analysis and fallacious reasoning and failed to meaningfully grapple with the serious constitutional issues. The constitutional interpretation is not constitutionally bound and is defective. The manner the HoF managed the constitutional vacuum concerning election postponement, indisputably, was constitutional interpretation by name but a political decision in practice.

Exit Strategy from COVID-19: Vaccination and an Alternative Solution

Vaccination groups all over the globe made a strong coordinated effort to put an end to the current COVID-19 crisis. Since vaccination started first in the UK on 8 th December, 2020 we have sufficient data to analyse and derive useful results. It addressed issues viz. seasonality, indirect consequences of mass vaccination and fast mutation of the virus after mass vaccination. To develop useful timely insights, some similarities between COVID-19 and Flu received attention. Critical and open analyses, balanced discussion in the current crucial stage are desperately needed. Questioning, debating and criticism are always the basis of good science and the main pillars to its advancement. With that objective in mind, it is an effort to explore areas relating to the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines with a pragmatic viewpoint. Policymakers will be greatly benefitted from such analyses. An alternative optimistic pathway is also mentioned which was proposed as early as 17 th March, 2020 and is practically without side effects and no vested interest involved.

A New MDPI Proceedings Journal: Biology and Life Sciences Forum

Since the launch of its very first journal, MDPI has had a vested interest in open access scientific communication in all of its forms [...]

What is a vested interest?

The term ‘vested interest’ is often used with a negative connotation, with regard to powerful and wealthy firms or groups who exploit their insider position or block policy changes that others believe would benefit the social interest, the latter potentially including future generations. But the term vested interests also covers members of the public who have rights to participate in public debate. So, how should we understand ‘vested interests’ for the purpose of improving and democratising policymaking processes?

Inadvertent reproduction of Eurocentrism in IR: The politics of critiquing Eurocentrism

The study of Eurocentrism has become a hallmark of postcolonial International Relations theories. Of particular concern in this literature has been the resilience of Eurocentrism despite conscious efforts to move towards a post-Eurocentric understanding of world politics. This study argues that while existing works have highlighted many of the reasons why Eurocentrism persists today, it has not been sufficiently identified and conceptualised. In particular, why some policy actors, who have a vested interest in moving beyond Eurocentrism, inadvertently reproduce Eurocentrism? This article proposes to distinguish between different types of inadvertent reproductions. In particular it highlights rhetorical critique, deconstruction, decentring and dehierarchising, as different ways to critique, inadvertently reproduce and partially modify Eurocentrism. To illustrate this situation, this article looks at Turkey's migration policies and documents how Turkish governing elites have openly claimed the need to upend the Eurocentric order, yet have reproduced it in practice.

Creating Lasting Meaningful Social Reform

This chapter examines the emancipations which were not the result of British or American arm-twisting. Brazil did not emancipate its slaves even after a second British naval assault — a blockade of Rio de Janeiro. What induced Brazil to change? On the one hand, the slaves mobilized themselves. The late nineteenth century saw increasing uprisings by black populations and increasing numbers of organized mass escapes as groups of slaves made runs for the frontier. On the other hand, Brazil urbanized. The urban population had no vested interest in slavery, so abolitionist groups formed in the larger Brazilian cities just as they had formed in Britain. Change in public opinion led to the abolition of serfdom in Russia as well.

Africa

Jonathan Edwards’s attention to Africa cannot go unnoticed, as articulated in his A History of the Work of Redemption. Less attention, however, has been given to the reception of Edwards’s works in Africa. This absence in Edwardsean research is remarkable, as many of his works have been reprinted, translated, and published from the eighteenth century onwards, particularly by those who had a vested interest in missionary movements and societies labouring throughout Africa. In fact, the reception of Edwards’s thought in Africa is primarily through the work of nineteenth-century missionaries and missionary societies—willing or unwilling participants of the colonial European expansion in Africa. Several of his works translated into Arabic, Dutch, English, French, and German found their way from Cairo to Cape Town. This chapter, then, is a preliminary overview from North Africa to Southern Africa of the distribution, use, and appropriation of some of Edwards’s works throughout the continent.