Constitution Day event at USF St. Petersburg Campus -- Professor Shasivari -- featured on SEEU website

 https://www.seeu.edu.mk/en/information/news-events?id=2133

South East European University (SEEU) shared the news of Professor Shasivari's keynote address for USF St. Petersburg's Constitution Day event about presidential pardons:

Professor Shasivari with lecture on constitutional law in front of students of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USA)

17 September 2020

Within the collaboration framework of the between the University of South Florida St. Petersburg USA and SEEU-Faculty of Law, on the occasion of marking 17th September - the Anniversary of the US Constitution, Prof. Jeton Shasivari, in front of 40 students, gave an online lecture on the topic “The Pardon Power of the President of North Macedonia as a (Un) Restricted Constitutional Right”.

The lecture was moderated by the American professor of constitutional law, Prof. Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, while American students asked many questions, which proves that their interest in the lecture was very high.

Prof. Shasivari addressed constitutional and legal aspects of the presidential pardon in North Macedonia, focusing on the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, as well as the possible international legal consequences of the 2016 Presidential Pardon before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Constitution Day Event -- Featuring Keynote Speaker SEEU Law Professor Jeton SHASIVARI

For our 2020 Constitution Day celebration, we were honored to have as our Keynote Speaker SEEU Law Professor Dr. Jeton SHASIVARI.

After resolving a technical glitch when getting started, our US Constitutional Law students and guests had the privilege of learning more about the presidential pardon power in the Republic of North Macedonia.

Professor Shasivari explained the constitutional and legal basis for the presidential pardon power: Article 84 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, the  specialized Law on Pardoning in 1993 with amendments in 2009 and 2016, and the relevant decisions of the Constitutional Court in 2016.  We also learned more about the controversial pardons of April 2016 when the President of the Republic of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov issued 41 pardons (involving 56 people) in one day, that were followed by mass protests.

After the presentation, we had an engaging discussion, comparing and contrasting the presidential pardon power in the US and North Macedonia.

In advance of the presentation, the US students read Professor Besa Arifi's article in the SEEU Law Review:

The President's Right to Issue Prdons article by Prof. Besa Arifi

And students familiarized themselves with the history of presidential pardons in the US.  Article II, Section 2, cl. 1 gives the US President the power to pardon federal offenses. (And see Hamilton's Federalist #74 for further explanation of the Framers' justification for the pardon power.)

For more, see

https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/blog/presidential-pardons-a-constitutional-and-historical-review

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/section-2/clause-1/pardons-and-reprieves

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardon-information-and-instructions

 

 

 

Constitution Day 2020 -- SEEU - USF -- Keynote Speaker Prof. Dr. Jeton Shasivari -- Presidential Pardons

We are looking forward to observing 2020 US Constitution Day (#233!) with Professor Dr. Jeton Shasivari of the Law Faculty of SEEU

The topic will be "The Pardon Power of the President of North Macedonia, as an (un)limited Constitutional Right"

and will compare to the US context with my students in US Constitutional Law

 

 
For more about SEEU https://www.seeu.edu.mk/

For the full text of the US Constitution https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript

2019 Annual Report Fulbright Association -- Mid-Florida Chapter!

Today I received the Fulbright Association 2019 Annual Report in the mail.

Wonderful to read about all of the ways that Fulbrighters are staying involved and connected.  

It also brought back fond memories of the Fulbright Association Annual meeting, which I attended in the Fall of 2019 (See, for example https://jainmacedonia.blogspot.com/2019/11/fulbright-association-annual-meeting)

Also pictured were our participation in Lobby Days on Capitol Hill: 

with President of the Mid-Florida Chapter, Amela Malkic, President of the North Florida Fulbright Association Latika Young, the Director of the US-Mexico Fulbright Commission Hazel Blackmore in Rep Lois Frankel's office -- and Rep. Frankel is the artist! and painted to beautiful pictures behind us

And Congressman John Lewis!

 For more about the Fulbright Association, see https://fulbright.org/

Michigan Proclaims Macedonian American Day: September 8, 2020

Congratulations to the Republic of North Macedonia on its 29th Anniversary of Independence. 

Wishing I was there to toast to our friends with a nice glass of vranec -- or rakija!

Also, congrats to the diaspora in Michigan - on this proclamation of Macedonian American Day by Governor Whitman.

From the United Macedonian Diaspora Website:

See the full story on this link:
michigan-governor-proclaims-september-8th-as-macedonian-american-day

Michigan Governor Proclaims September 8th as Macedonian American Day

September 8, 2020 Advocacy United States, News

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer proclaimed today September 8th as Macedonian American Day in the State of Michigan
“This recognition shows our Macedonian community is strong within Michigan. Our hard work, passion, and dedication exemplifies commitment for the betterment of the Macedonian community,” said UMD Michigan Chair Deana Janceski.

Constitution Day 2020: Keynote Speaker SEEU Prof Dr Besa Arifi: Presidential Pardons in Comparative Context

So pleased that our Keynote Speaker for our 2020 Constitution Day event will be Prof. Dr. Besa Arifi of South East European University.

Her subject -- Presidential Pardons

After her remarks, there will be Q&A, including conversation with students in my US Constitutional Law course, who will compare presidential pardons in North Macedonia and the US.

Please join us!

Thursday, September 17 from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EDT.

For more about SEEU: https://www.seeu.edu.mk/

Pre-Departure Orientation -- 2020 -- webinar for alumni presenters

I am delighted to be presenting (as a Scholar Alum) at the Pre-Departure Orientation for the outbound Fulbrighters again this year.

As a participant in this Fulbright Scholar Program -- the assistance of alumni was invaluable. I am honored to have been invited to mentor/participate in the Pre-Departure Orientation for those heading out in 2021.

This year, all of the meetings and conferences at the PDO will be virtual.

And our first meeting with fellow alumni to go over our roles and responsibilities was virtual as well.  A lot of creativity in the planning for this year's PDO -- to ensure that it is as helpful, interactive, meaningful and impactful as when we are all together.

The most difficult thing to recreate will be all those opportunities we had at the PDOs to socialize over meals, coffee breaks, after formal sessions to talk about the myriad of logistical questions.

This year we will be using Canvas (among other tools) in new ways to invite more collaboration in discussion boards, etc.

(The most disappointing news of this webinar: if we were in person this year, we would have been at the University of Oregon!! Experts there will still be leading sessions for the outbound Fulbrighters -- but -- it would have been fantastic to be back in Eugene!)

The North Macedonia Country session is not for another 6 weeks. My plan is to get this blog updated with projects and activities (still missing posts from 2020, 2019 and 2018 that could provide helpful info for those planning to move to MK) before our session.

I was traveling and not in a place where I could join by laptop -- but I was able to join by phone