In this episode, Centre Co-Director Will Partlett talks with Professor Dinesha Samararatne about the role constitutions can play in rebuilding democracy.  In particular, she talks about her own experience in rebuilding Sri Lankan constitutional democracy both as an academic and member of the Constitutional Council. 

Dinesha Samararatne is a Professor at the Department of Public & International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dinesha is a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School and Editor of the University of Colombo Review. In 2023 she was appointed as an independent expert to the Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka. 

Recommended reading: 

• The Global South and Comparative Constitutional Law, Philipp Dann, Michael Riegner, Maxim Bönnemann 

• Home in the World: A Memoir, Amartya Sen 

• Upon a Sleepless Isle, Andrew Fidel Fernando 

Constitutional Cafe is a podcast of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. You can find out more about the work of the Centre here. 

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which we record, learn, and live. 

In this episode, Adrienne Stone sits down with her Constitutional Café co-host and Director the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies, William Partlett to discuss his new book Why the Russian Constitutional Matters: The Constitutional Dark Arts (2024).  

The book argues that the roots Putin’s vast power lie in the nature of the constitutional transition of the early 1990s, which created a powerful Presidency to ensure a democratic transition and to protect the long list of rights guaranteed in the Constitution.  But though effective at the time, Will traces how this Constitution has since allowed Putin to consolidate personal control over Russian politics.  

William Partlett is an Associate Professor at Melbourne Law School.  A specialist in Russian history, he holds degrees in Russian History as well as a law degree from Stanford University and is a Russian speaker. Professor Partlett’s research takes a historical and comparative approach to questions of public law. 

Recommended reading: 

• Why the Russian Constitution Matters: The Constitutional Dark Arts, William Partlett 

• Latin American Constitutionalism, 1810–2010. The Engine Room of the Constitution, Roberto Gargarella 

• Technopopulism: The New Logic of Democratic Politics, Christopher J. Bickerton, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti 

• The Penguin History of Modern Russia, Robert Service 

  
  

Constitutional Cafe is a podcast of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. You can find out more about the work of the Centre here. 

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which we record, learn, and live.

In this episode, Constitutional Café co- host Adrienne Stone talks with Professor Edward Foley, a recent distinguished visitor at Melbourne Law about democracy, polarisation and electoral systems.

Professor Foley is interested in how voting systems might help depolarize the intense partisan competition that is experienced in the United States. In a recent lecture delivered in Melbourne he shone new light on the work of Australian mathematician who in the late 19th and early 20th Century pioneered “ranked choice” or “preferential” voting, which has been in place in Australia for decades and forms part of Australia’s unique voting system.  

Edward B. Foley holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at The Ohio State University, where he directs also its election law program, and is widely recognized as one of the United States’ foremost experts on election law. 

Recommended reading: 

• On Democracy, Robert A. Dahl 

• Grant, Ron Chernow 

Constitutional Cafe is a podcast of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. You can find out more about the work of the Centre here. 

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which we record, learn, and live.  

Chile recently saw the defeat at a national referendum of a proposed new democratic constitution. What should we make of this result, and what does it mean for the future of democratic constitutional reform in Chile and globally? Did Chilean constitution-makers try to achieve too much, too fast? Was the vote the product of opposition disinformation, or popular misunderstanding? Or was the defeat a product of deeper forces pushing against the chances of successful democratic constitutional transformation?

In this podcast, Rosalind Dixon explores these questions with an expert Chilean and comparative constitutional panel, including Professor Veronica Undagarra, Javier Cuoso and David Landau.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.