Bücher der Reihe Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy

The new wave of populism that has emerged over the last five years in Europe and in the US urgently needs to be better understood in a comparative and historical context. Using Italy - including the experiment of a self-styled populist coalition government - as a case study, this book investigates how populists in power borrow, use and manipulate categories of constitutional theory and instruments of constitutional law. Giuseppe Martinico goes beyond treating constitutionalism and populism as purely antithetical to dive deeply into the impact of populism on the activity of some instruments of constitutional democracy, endeavoring to explore their role as possible fora of populist claims and targets of populist attacks. Most importantly, he points to ways in which constitutional democracies can channel populist claims without jeopardizing the legacy of post-World War II constitutionalism. This book is aimed at academics and practicing lawyers interested in populism and comparative constitutional law.

With its emphasis on emerging and cutting-edge debates in the study of comparative constitutional law and politics, its suitability for both research and teaching use, and its distinguished and diverse cast of contributors, this handbook is a must-have for scholars and instructors alike. This versatile volume combines the depth and rigor of a scholarly reference work with features for teaching in law and social science courses. Its interdisciplinary case-study approach provides political and historical as well as legal context: each modular chapter offers an overview of a topic and a jurisdiction, followed by a case study that simultaneously contextualizes both. Its forward-looking and highly diverse selection of topics and jurisdictions fills gaps in the literature on the Global South as well as the West. A timely section on challenges to liberal constitutional democracy addresses pressing concerns about democratic backsliding and illiberal and/or authoritarian regimes.

Many constitutions include provisions intended to limit the discretion of governments in economic policy. In times of financial crises, such provisions often come under pressure as a result of calls for exceptional responses to crisis situations. This volume assesses the ability of constitutional orders all over the world to cope with financial crises, and the demands for emergency powers that typically accompany them. Bringing together a variety of perspectives from legal scholars, economists, and political scientists, this volume traces the long-run implications of financial crises for constitutional order. In exploring the theoretical and practical problems raised by the constitutionalization of economic policy during times of severe crisis, this volume showcases an array of constitutional design options and the ways they channel governmental responses to emergency.

Judges often behave in surprising ways when they re-interpret laws and constitutions. Contrary to existing expectations, judges regularly abandon their own established interpretations in favor of new understandings. In Reconstructing Rights, Stephan Stohler offers a new theory of judicial behavior which demonstrates that judges do not act alone. Instead, Stohler shows that judges work in a deliberative fashion with aligned partisans in the elected branches to articulate evolving interpretations of major statutes and constitutions. Reconstructing Rights draws on legislative debates, legal briefs, and hundreds of judicial opinions issued from high courts in India, South Africa, and the United States in the area of discrimination and affirmative action. These materials demonstrate judges' willingness to provide interpretative leadership. But they also demonstrate how judges relinquish their leadership roles when their aligned counterparts disagree. This pattern of behavior indicates that judges do not exercise exclusive authority over constitutional interpretation. Rather, that task is subject to greater democratic influence than is often acknowledged.

From London to Libya, from Istanbul to Iceland, there is great interest among comparative constitutional scholars and practitioners about when a proposed constitution is likely to succeed. But what does it mean for a constitution to succeed? Are there universal criteria of success, and which apply across the board? Or, is the choice of criteria entirely idiosyncratic? This edited volume takes on the idea of constitutional success and shows the manifold ways in which it can be understood. It collects essays from philosophers, political scientists, empiricists and legal scholars, that approach the definition of constitutional success from many different angles. It also brings together case studies from Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. By exploring a varied array of constitutional histories, this book shows how complex ideas of constitutional success play out differently in different contexts and provides examples of how success can be differently defined under different circumstances.

Public participation is a vital part of constitution-making processes around the world, but we know very little about the extent to which participation affects constitutional texts. In this book, Alexander Hudson offers a systematic measurement of the impact of public participation in three much-cited cases - Brazil, South Africa, and Iceland - and introduces a theory of party-mediated public participation. He argues that public participation has limited potential to affect the constitutional text but that the effectiveness of participation varies with the political context. Party strength is the key factor, as strong political parties are unlikely to incorporate public input, while weaker parties are comparatively more responsive to public input. This party-mediation thesis fundamentally challenges the contemporary consensus on the design of constitution-making processes and places new emphasis on the role of political parties.

"Comparative constitutional law is an intellectually vibrant field that encompasses an increasingly broad array of approaches and methodologies. This series collects analytically innovative and empirically grounded work from scholars of comparative constitutionalism across academic disciplines. Books in the series include theoretically informed studies of single constitutional jurisdictions, comparative studies of constitutional law and institutions, and edited collections of original essays that respond to challenging theoretical and empirical questions in the field"--

"Liberal concepts of democracy envision courts as key institutions for the promotion and protection of democratic regimes. Yet social science scholarship suggests that courts are fundamentally constrained in ways that undermine their ability to do so. Recognizing these constraints, this book argues that courts can influence regime instability by affecting inter-elite conflict. They do so in three ways: by helping leaders credibly reveal their rationales for policy choices that may appear to violate legal rules; by encouraging leaders to less frequently make decisions that raise concerns about rule violations; and by encouraging the opposition to accept potential rule violations. In each way, courts promote the prudent use of power. We evaluate implications of this argument using a century of global data tracking judicial politics and democratic survival"--

This versatile and interdisciplinary handbook covers cutting-edge issues in constitutional law, constitutional politics, and judicial politics across a diverse range of countries and regions. Its innovative design combines features for teaching use with rigorous yet accessible scholarship on topics and jurisdictions rarely found elsewhere.

Constitution-making is often thought of as an exclusively national project that constitutes the framework for politics and law within a nation, but constitutions have always been influenced by ideas from abroad. External influence is increasing, producing a transnational legal order with its own constitutional norms, processes, guidelines and shared ideas.

This book is for scholars interested in the comparative study of judicial review. It develops a theoretical framework for understanding how this institution shapes societal understandings of the law/politics relation. Its findings cast light on the conditions under which judicial review drives a sustainable commitment to constitutionally limited government.

The Norwegian constitution is the second oldest in the world and has much to teach the world about balancing the rule of law against majority rule. This is the story of Norwegian constitutionalism from 1814 onwards, told through Supreme Court cases reviewing legal statutes under the constitution and European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) law.

This book traces the development of constitutional courts in Latin America, and develops concepts such as judicial autonomy and authority. It aims to understand the design of judicial institutions and combines qualitative and quantitative evidence to explore the basic purpose of constitutional justice.

It is widely assumed that a well-designed and well-implemented constitution can help ensure religious harmony in modern states. Drawing on groundbreaking research from Sri Lanka, with a focus on Buddhism, this book argues that constitutional law can be more harmful than helpful when it comes to addressing conflicts over religion.

The book discusses the role of constitutional courts in democracies experiencing internal armed conflicts. It argues that constitutional jurisprudence can be a lighthouse helping civilian governments and the armed forces navigate through those uncertain and troubled waters.

This book proposes a general theory of international courts that assumes member states are free to ignore international agreements and adverse court rulings, and that the court does not have any informational advantages. It demonstrates that international courts can facilitate cooperation with international law, but only within important political constraints.

This book argues that national and international courts seek to enhance their reputations through the strategic exercise of judicial power. When the court's reputation is increased, parties will be expected to comply with its judgments and the reputational sanction on a party that fails to comply will be higher.

Despite India's parliamentary system, the president has authority to enact legislation (or ordinances) under certain circumstances without involving parliament. This book studies ordinances at the national level in India centered around historical, empirical, and analytical themes. It explains why the fate of parliamentary reforms may be tied to the reform of the provision for ordinances.

With a new and comprehensive account of the South African Constitutional Court's social rights decisions, Brian Ray argues that the Court's procedural enforcement approach has had significant but underappreciated effects on law and policy, and challenges the view that a stronger substantive standard of review is necessary to realize these rights. Drawing connections between the Court's widely acclaimed early decisions and the more recent second-wave cases, Ray explains that the Court has responded to the democratic legitimacy and institutional competence concerns that consistently constrain it by developing doctrines and remedial techniques that enable activists, civil society and local communities to press directly for rights-protective policies through structured, court-managed engagement processes. Engaging with Social Rights shows how those tools could be developed to make state institutions responsive to the needs of poor communities by giving those communities and their advocates consistent access to policy-making and planning processes.

Judicial councils and other judicial self-government bodies have become a worldwide phenomenon. Democracies are increasingly turning to them to insulate the judiciary from the daily politics, enhance independence and ensure judicial accountability. This book investigates the different forms of accountability and the taxonomy of mechanisms of control to determine a best practice methodology. The author expertly provides a meticulous analysis, using over 800 case studies from the Czech and Slovak disciplinary courts from 1993 to 2010 and creates a systematic framework that can be applied to future cases.

This book is an empirical study of contributions by courts in the Global South to comparative constitutionalism. It offers an analytical framework for understanding these constitutional innovations and illustrates them with a qualitative study of the most ambitious case in constitutional adjudication in Latin America over the last decade: the Colombian Constitutional Court's structural injunction affecting the rights of over five million internally displaced people and its implementation process. Although the ruling (known as T25) was handed down in 2004, its monitoring process continues. This book traces the case's evolution from its origin to its effects on policy, politics and public opinion. It also compares the implementation and effects of T25 with those of other rulings on the rights to health, food, housing, and prison overcrowding in Colombia, India and South Africa. The study's insights will be of interest to scholars of comparative constitutionalism in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Many of us take for granted the idea that the right to religious freedom should be protected in a free, democratic polity. This book challenges whether the protection and privilege of religious belief and identity should be prioritized over any other right. By studying the effects of constitutional promises of religious freedom and establishment clauses, Frank B. Cross sets the stage for a set of empirical questions that examine the consequences of such protections. Although the case for broader protection is often made as a theoretical matter, constitutions generally protect freedom of religion. Allowing people full choice in religious beliefs or freedom of conscience is central to their autonomy. Freedom of religion is thus potentially a very valuable aspect of society, at least so long as it respects the freedom of individuals to be irreligious. This book tests these associations and finds that constitutions provide national religious protection, especially when the legal system is more sophisticated.

A comparative, critical analysis of constitutional courts and constitutional review in Asia, appealing to those who are interested in comparative constitutional law, comparative politics, and Asian studies, particularly from the point of view of human rights, democracy, legal systems, the Rule of Law, constitutional adjudication and governance.

Reconstructing Rights will appeal to several audiences because of its deliberative-partnership thesis, including public law scholars for its social-scientific approach to the study of legal doctrine; legal scholars because it challenges broadly held commitments to judicial supremacy; and area-specialists for its cross-national investigation of equality rights.

From the eighteenth century to the present, constituent assemblies have shaped the framework of politics. They differ from ordinary legislatures in that the stakes are higher, and that decisions are shaped by interests, ideology, and also by passions. The contributions in this book range from case studies to comparative analyses and theoretical arguments.

This book details the conditions leading to the failure of constitution making and constitutional reform in Turkey, and offers lessons that can be applied elsewhere. It will appeal to scholars and students of constitutional politics and be valuable supplementary reading for undergraduate and graduate courses in Turkish studies.

Constitution-making is often thought of as an exclusively national project that constitutes the framework for politics and law within a nation, but constitutions have always been influenced by ideas from abroad. External influence is increasing, producing a transnational legal order with its own constitutional norms, processes, guidelines and shared ideas.

Constitutional provisions limit the discretion of governments in economic policy, but in times of financial crises there are pressures for exceptional responses. This volume assesses the ability of constitutional orders all over the world to cope with financial crisis, and traces the long-run implications.

With contributions from leading scholars in constitutional law, this volume examines how carefully designed and limited doctrines of proportionality can improve judicial decision-making, how it is applied in different jurisdictions, its role on constitutionalism outside the courts, and whether the principle of proportionality actually advances or detracts from democracy.