Joel Colón-Ríos
Qualifications
BA, JD Puerto Rico, LLM Tor, PhD York(Can)
Profile
Joel joined Victoria University of Wellington from Osgoode Hall Law School, where he obtained his PhD and taught as part of the Adjunct Faculty. He teaches Introduction to Case Law, Comparative Law, and Advanced Public Law. Joel is currently Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Law. His research interests include comparative constitutional law, constitutional theory, legal and democratic theory, and Latin American constitutionalism. He is currently working on a monograph titled Constituent Power and the Law
Areas of supervision
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Latin American Constitutionalism
- Legal and Democratic Theory
Current research
Joel’s research explores the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy. His latest publications explore different institutionalisations of judicial review of legislation, the theoretical basis of the doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendments, and the juridical implications of the theory of constituent power. His current book project, Constituent Power and the Law, looks at the ways in which judges, government officials, jurists, and citizens from various jurisdictions have made use, and use, the theory of constituent power to justify or challenge the legal validity of different exercises of political power.
Most of Joel’s publications can be read free of charge at SSRN.
Selection of publications
- Weak Constitutionalism: Democratic Legitimacy and the Question of Constituent Power (Routledge, 2012) 210 pp SSRN.
- “Five Conceptions of Constituent Power” (2014) 130 Law Quarterly Review 306-336 SSRN.
- “A New Typology of Judicial Review of Legislation” (2014) 3(2) Global Constitutionalism 143-169 SSRN.
- “The Counter-Majoritarian Difficulty and the Road Not Taken: Democratizing Amendment Rules” Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence (2012) Vol XXV, No 1, 53-78 SSRN.
- “New Zealand’s Constitutional Crisis” (2011) 24 New Zealand Universities Law Review 448-477 SSRN.