Congratulations to Professor Hamid Ghany on his latest publications.
Ghany. H. (2024). [Review of the book Handbook on Parliamentary financial oversight : adapting PAC best practices to legislatures in small jurisdictions by Commonwealth Parliamentary Association]. Small States & Territories, 7(1), 187-188.
Abstract
This book emerged out of a research project jointly undertaken between the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and McGill University, School of Continuing Studies, Montreal, Canada. This research project was announced at the CPA Small Branches Conference in Kampala in September 2019 and 30 small jurisdictions, including more than two dozen small CPA branches, responded to the research questionnaire. The research project was funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, with matching funds from partners. The project leader was Rick Stapenhurst, from McGill University. The intention of the handbook is to examine the status of parliamentary financial oversight through Public Accounts Committees (PACs) in small Commonwealth parliaments. That examination includes institutional factors, capacity and motivation, out of which came recommendations to promote enhanced parliamentary financial oversight in small jurisdictions.
Ghany, H. (2024). Prorogation in Commonwealth Caribbean countries: an analysis of the relevance of the Miller decision. The Journal of Legislative Studies, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13572334.2024.2335
Abstract
The judgment in the Miller case in the UK in September 2019 which overturned the decision of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to advise the Queen to prorogue Parliament is not applicable in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The view of Derek O’Brien in the Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics in January 2022, which suggests otherwise, is challenged.
The article addresses the use of the prorogation of Parliament as a means of avoiding adverse political circumstances in the Commonwealth Caribbean by Prime Ministers and Presidents to ensure political survival in the following cases:
1989 – Prime Minister Herbert Blaize in Grenada.
2002 – Prime Minister Patrick Manning in Trinidad and Tobago.
2012 – Prime Minister Tillman Thomas in Grenada.
2014 – President Donald Ramotar in Guyana.
In the Commonwealth Caribbean, all of the constitutions are written, unlike the United Kingdom.
The constitutional dissimilarities on prorogation between the Westminster-Whitehall model in the Commonwealth Caribbean and the Westminster model in the UK will confirm the inapplicability of the Miller case to the Commonwealth Caribbean.