Stefan Grazidei, PhD student at the Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp.
Over the last years, the Belgian Constitutional Court has been confronted with an array of legal challenges to the institutional agreement on the sixth state reform. The latest of these attempts to judicially unwind the reform was decided by the Court at the end of May 2015. The Flemish nationalist party N-VA had petitioned the Court. Object of the controversy was the long disputed Brussels Halle Vilvoorde electoral district (BHV). Although split for the Chamber of Representatives, BHV continued to exist for the election of the so-called “coopted” senators. The decision impinges on the broader territoriality v. personality debate in Belgian constitutional law and shows the Court’s rather prudent approach in politically salient cases that divide Belgian language communities.
In celebration of 1 year BelConLawBlog, we have the pleasure of inviting you to the guest lecture ‘Challenges to democracy in the 21st century’ by Yves Leterme, Secretary-General of IDEA (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance). The event will take place on Monday 12 October 2015 at 7 p.m. in ‘Het Pand – Room Rector Vermeylen’ (Onderbergen 1, 9000 Gent), followed by a reception with networking opportunity.