The tension between “eternity” clauses and the possibility of constitutional replacement has been noted but not adequately explored. Constitutional theory must leave room for replacing a constitution with an eternity clause protecting some specific matter such as federalism or secularism with one modifying federalism or secularism, but then the sense in which the existing constitution is unamendable is unclear. Even more, a “simple” amendment to a clause protected by an eternity provision might be adopted through the processes used to replace constitutions as a whole, in which case we might understand the simple amendment as a pro tanto replacement. Insisting that provisions protected by eternity clauses be modified by constitutional replacements — or through the procedures used for such replacements — might serve as valuable “speed bumps” to slow down replacement, though one might wonder whether the eternity clause itself would be a sufficient speed bump.

Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICON·S Executive Committee has decided to postpone our 2020 Conference to 2021. Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021, in Wrocław, Poland.
Procedural details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow in the months ahead.
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