Law Review Articles on Synchronicity of Bicameral Legislative Houses

Two bills were recently passed by the Oireachtas (i.e., the Irish national legislature): [1] Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020; and, [2] Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020.

“It might be noted that the Oireachtas which enacted these measures consisted of the ‘new’ [post-general election] Dáil [i.e., the popularly elected lower house] and the ‘old’ Seanad [i.e., the upper house].” Gerard Hogan & Hilary Hogan, Legal and Constitutional Issues arising from the 2020 General Election 21 n.44 (Apr. 29, 2020), <https://ssrn.com/abstract=3587047>. Below is a list of law review articles and other sources touching on the discontinuity or synchronicity problem—problems associated with the two chambers of a bicameral parliament acting in different sessions or different “parliaments.” My understanding is that a lawsuit has been brought in the High Court challenging the validity/constitutionality of these two statutes.

Seth Barrett Tillman, Noncontemporaneous Lawmaking: Can the 110th Senate Enact a Bill Passed by the 109th House?, 16 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 331 (2007), <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=505822>;

Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl, Against Mix-and-Match Lawmaking, 16 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 349 (2007), <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=932574>;

Seth Barrett Tillman, Defending the (Not So) Indefensible: A Reply to Professor Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl, 16 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 363 (2007), <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=956155>;

Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl, Burying the “Continuing Body” Theory of the Senate, 95 Iowa L. Rev. 1401 (2010), <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1427456>; 

Rivka Weill, Reviewing Continuity in Legislation, 37(3) Tel Aviv U. L. Rev. 563 (2016) (peer reviewed) (available on HeinOnline), <http://portal.idc.ac.il/FacultyPublication.Publication?PublicationID=3849&FacultyUserName=cndlaWxs>;

Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash, Of Synchronicity and Supreme Law, 132 Harv. L. Rev. 1220 (2019), <https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1220-1299_Online.pdf>; 

and,

James Fowkes, Prorogation of the Legislative Body, in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law 11 (Jan. 2017), <https://oxcon.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law-mpeccol/law-mpeccol-e357?print=pdf>.

Supplement

Rivka Weill, The Living-Dead, 38 Fordham Int’l L.J. 387 (2015), <https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2381&context=ilj>;

Michael Stern, Legislative Discontinuity: An Introduction, Point of Order (May 19, 2018), <https://www.pointoforder.com/2018/05/19/legislative-discontinuity-an-introduction/>; 

     and, 

Michael Stern, Constitutional Text and Discontinuity, Point of Order (June 8, 2018), <https://www.pointoforder.com/2018/06/08/constitutional-text-and-discontinuity/>. 

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Seth Barrett Tillman, Law Review Articles on Synchronicity of Bicameral Legislative Houses, New Reform Club (May 5, 2020, 1:50 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2020/05/law-review-articles-on-synchronicity-of.html>