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Author: Joel I. Colon-Rios
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415671906
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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Book Description
It has been argued that democracy is protected and realized under traditional liberal constitutional forms through constitutional rights such as free speech, freedom of association and the right to vote. This book looks at the relationship between democracy and constitutions.
Author: Joel I. Colon-Rios
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415671906
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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Book Description
It has been argued that democracy is protected and realized under traditional liberal constitutional forms through constitutional rights such as free speech, freedom of association and the right to vote. This book looks at the relationship between democracy and constitutions.
Author: Joel Colón-Ríos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136319263
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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Book Description
It has been frequently argued that democracy is protected and realized under constitutions that protect certain rights and establish the conditions for a functioning representative democracy. However, some democrats still find something profoundly unsettling about contemporary constitutional regimes. The participation of ordinary citizens in constitutional change in the world's most "advanced" democracies (such as the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom) is weak at best: the power of constitutional reform usually lies in the exclusive hands of legislatures. How can constitutions that can only be altered by those occupying positions of power be considered democratically legitimate? This book argues that only a regime that provides an outlet for constituent power to manifest from time to time can ever come to enjoy democratic legitimacy. In so doing, it advances a democratic constitutional theory, one that combines a strong or participatory conception of democracy with a weak form of constitutionalism. The author engages with Anglo-American constitutional theory as well as examining the theory and practise of constituent power in different constitutional regimes (including Latin American countries) where constituent power has become an important part of the left’s legal and political discourse. Weak Constitutionalism: Democratic Legitimacy and the Question of Constituent Power will be of particular interest to legal/political theorists and comparative constitutional lawyers. It also provides an introduction to the theory of constituent power and its relationship to constitutionalism and democracy.
Author: Mark Tushnet
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400828155
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Unlike many other countries, the United States has few constitutional guarantees of social welfare rights such as income, housing, or healthcare. In part this is because many Americans believe that the courts cannot possibly enforce such guarantees. However, recent innovations in constitutional design in other countries suggest that such rights can be judicially enforced--not by increasing the power of the courts but by decreasing it. In Weak Courts, Strong Rights, Mark Tushnet uses a comparative legal perspective to show how creating weaker forms of judicial review may actually allow for stronger social welfare rights under American constitutional law. Under "strong-form" judicial review, as in the United States, judicial interpretations of the constitution are binding on other branches of government. In contrast, "weak-form" review allows the legislature and executive to reject constitutional rulings by the judiciary--as long as they do so publicly. Tushnet describes how weak-form review works in Great Britain and Canada and discusses the extent to which legislatures can be expected to enforce constitutional norms on their own. With that background, he turns to social welfare rights, explaining the connection between the "state action" or "horizontal effect" doctrine and the enforcement of social welfare rights. Tushnet then draws together the analysis of weak-form review and that of social welfare rights, explaining how weak-form review could be used to enforce those rights. He demonstrates that there is a clear judicial path--not an insurmountable judicial hurdle--to better enforcement of constitutional social welfare rights.
Author: Allan C. Hutchinson
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487507933
Category : Constitutional law
Languages : en
Pages : 220
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Book Description
Bold and unconventional, this book advocates for an institutional turn-about in the relationship between democracy and constitutionalism.
Author: Joel I.. Cólon-Ríos
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constituent power
Languages : en
Pages : 294
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Book Description
This dissertation is about the democratic legitimacy of constitutional regimes. It asks and provides an answer to the question of which conditions need to be met for a juridical system and the constitution that embodies it to be considered legitimate from a democratic perspective. In so doing, it explores the relationship between liberal constitutionalism, democracy, and constitutional change. It argues that there is an irreconcilable tension between democracy and liberal constitutionalism which is exemplified in the amendment procedures of most modern constitutions. These procedures are not only characterized by a lack of participatory mechanisms, but by the inclusion of a set of requirements that are more difficult to meet than those followed when the constitution was originally adopted. This, it is argued, signals that contemporary constitutional regimes suffer from an important deficit of democratic legitimacy. The dissertation approaches this problem from the theory of constituent power, until recentlyignored by Anglo-American constitutional theory. In virtue of its connections to democracy, constituent power provides two basic criteria to assess the democratic legitimacy of a constitutional regime: (1) ' A constitutional regime should have a democratic pedigree'; (2) ' a constitutional regime should be susceptible to democratic re-constitution '. Accordingly, a constitutional regime can only have a claim to democratic legitimacy if it is based on a conception of constitutionalism that does not approach constituent power as a threat. This conception of constitutionalism ('weak constitutionalism') mandates a permanently open fundamental law, one that is always susceptible to re-constitution through highly participatory procedures, such as constituent assemblies convened 'from below'. The dissertation also considers the practical implications of the two conditions of democratic legitimacy in the context of constitution-making and constitutional reform.
Author: Ran Hirschl
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674038677
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
In countries and supranational entities around the globe, constitutional reform has transferred an unprecedented amount of power from representative institutions to judiciaries. The constitutionalization of rights and the establishment of judicial review are widely believed to have benevolent and progressive origins, and significant redistributive, power-diffusing consequences. Ran Hirschl challenges this conventional wisdom. Drawing upon a comprehensive comparative inquiry into the political origins and legal consequences of the recent constitutional revolutions in Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and South Africa, Hirschl shows that the trend toward constitutionalization is hardly driven by politicians' genuine commitment to democracy, social justice, or universal rights. Rather, it is best understood as the product of a strategic interplay among hegemonic yet threatened political elites, influential economic stakeholders, and judicial leaders. This self-interested coalition of legal innovators determines the timing, extent, and nature of constitutional reforms. Hirschl demonstrates that whereas judicial empowerment through constitutionalization has a limited impact on advancing progressive notions of distributive justice, it has a transformative effect on political discourse. The global trend toward juristocracy, Hirschl argues, is part of a broader process whereby political and economic elites, while they profess support for democracy and sustained development, attempt to insulate policymaking from the vicissitudes of democratic politics.
Author: Joel I. Colón-Ríos
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constituent power
Languages : en
Pages : 294
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Book Description
This dissertation is about the democratic legitimacy of constitutional regimes. It asks and provides an answer to the question of which conditions need to be met for a juridical system and the constitution that embodies it to be considered legitimate from a democratic perspective. In so doing, it explores the relationship between liberal constitutionalism, democracy, and constitutional change. It argues that there is an irreconcilable tension between democracy and liberal constitutionalism which is exemplified in the amendment procedures of most modern constitutions. These procedures are not only characterized by a lack of participatory mechanisms, but by the inclusion of a set of requirements that are more difficult to meet than those followed when the constitution was originally adopted. This, it is argued, signals that contemporary constitutional regimes suffer from an important deficit of democratic legitimacy. The dissertation approaches this problem from the theory of constituent power, until recently ignored by Anglo-American constitutional theory. In virtue of its connections to democracy, constituent power provides two basic criteria to assess the democratic legitimacy of a constitutional regime: (1) A constitutional regime should have a democratic pedigree ; (2) a constitutional regime should be susceptible to democratic re-constitution . Accordingly, a constitutional regime can only have a claim to democratic legitimacy if it is based on a conception of constitutionalism that does not approach constituent power as a threat. This conception of constitutionalism ( weak constitutionalism ) mandates a permanently open fundamental law, one that is always susceptible to re-constitution through highly participatory procedures, such as constituent assemblies convened 'from below'. The dissertation also considers the practical implications of the two conditions of democratic legitimacy in the context of constitution-making and constitutional reform.
Author: Tamas Gyorfi
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1783473010
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 287
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Book Description
Ever since the Second World War, a new constitutional model has emerged worldwide that gives a pivotal role to judges. Against the New Constitutionalism challenges this reigning paradigm and develops a distinctively liberal position against strong constitutional review that puts the emphasis on epistemic considerations. The author considers whether the minimalist judicial review of Nordic countries is more in line with the best justification of the institution than the Commonwealth model that occupies a central place in contemporary constitutional scholarship.
Author: Thomas Bustamante
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319283715
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 330
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Book Description
This volume critically discusses the relationship between democracy and constitutionalism. It does so with a view to respond to objections raised by legal and political philosophers who are sceptical of judicial review based on the assumption that judicial review is an undemocratic institution. The book builds on earlier literature on the moral justification of the authority of constitutional courts, and on the current attempts to develop a system on “weak judicial review”. Although different in their approach, the chapters all focus on devising institutions, procedures and, in a more abstract way, normative conceptions to democratize constitutional law. These democratizing strategies may vary from a radical objection to the institution of judicial review, to a more modest proposal to justify the authority of constitutional courts in their “deliberative performance” or to create constitutional juries that may be more aware of a community’s constitutional morality than constitutional courts are. The book connects abstract theoretical discussions about the moral justification of constitutionalism with concrete problems, such as the relation between constitutional adjudication and deliberative democracy, the legitimacy of judicial review in international institutions, the need to create new institutions to democratize constitutionalism, the connections between philosophical conceptions and constitutional practices, the judicial review of constitutional amendments, and the criticism on strong judicial review.
Author: N. W. Barber
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192535684
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 417
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Book Description
In this follow-up volume to the critically acclaimed The Constitutional State, N. W. Barber explores how the principles of constitutionalism structure and influence successful states. Constitutionalism is not exclusively a mechanism to limit state powers. An attractive and satisfying account of constitutionalism, and, by derivation, of the state, can only be reached if the principles of constitutionalism are seen as interlocking parts of a broader doctrine. This holistic study of the relationship between the constitutional state and its central principles - sovereignty; the separation of powers; the rule of law; subsidiarity; democracy; and civil society - casts light on long-standing debates over the meaning and implications of constitutionalism. The book provides a concise introduction to constitutionalism and a detailed account of the nature and implications of each of the principles in question. It concludes with an examination of the importance of constitutional principles to the work of judges, legislators, and others involved in the operation and creation of the constitution. The book is essential reading for those seeking a definitive account of constitutionalism and its benefits.
