Event

The Constitutional Affairs and Parliamentary Studies Unit (CAPSU), at the Department of Behavioural Sciences, commemorates the 50^th anniversary of the independence of Trinidad and Tobago with a lunchtime seminar series. The entire Campus community is invited to the inaugural seminar on Thursday 19^th April, 2012, at noon, at the Faculty of Social Sciences Lounge.

This seminar will feature Professor Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney Law School, Sydney, Australia, as the key speaker. Professor Twomey will present on The Challenges of Fixed-Term Parliaments in Commonwealth Parliamentary Systems. In this lecture she will discuss the following:

1. The advantages and disadvantages of fixed terms for Parliaments in Westminster style systems;
2. How fixed terms have been implemented in the Australian States by way of amending an entrenched Constitution, and the issues that arise regarding reserve powers and early elections;
3. How fixed terms have been implemented in Canada by legislation instead of amending an entrenched Constitution, and how this has proved ineffective; and
4. How fixed terms have been implemented in the UK by legislation where there is no entrenched Constitution.