Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Luxembourg parliament limits monarch's legislative role

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies on Thursday voted to amend the country's constitution to eliminate the requirement that its Grand Duke approve legislation before it becomes law. The country's parliament passed the amendment by a vote of 56-0, with one abstention. It reduces the Grand Duke's legislative role under article 34 of Luxembourg's constitution from both sanctioning and promulgating laws, to merely their promulgation. The amendment came after the country's current monarch, Grand Duke Henri, said he would not approve a bill passed by the parliament earlier this year that legalizes euthanasia. Supporters of the change say the amendment modernizes the country's constitution in line with other countries which reserve a purely ceremonial role for their monarchs. Henri has said he will approve the amendment. The second reading of the euthanasia bill, a step necessary for it to become law, will take place on December 18. The Netherlands legalized euthanasia in 2001 and Belgium followed suit in 2002. In February 2007, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled that people with serious mental illnesses may be permitted to commit physician-assisted suicide under certain conditions. A proposed bill that would legalize assisted suicide in the United Kingdom was set aside by the House of Lords in May 2007 following opposition by physician groups. In January 2006, the US Supreme Court upheld Oregon's Death with Dignity Act; Oregon is the only US state that allows physician-assisted suicide. Euthanasia remains illegal in Italy, France and Spain.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).