Quasi-Constitutionality and Constitutional Statutes

Quasi-Constitutionality and Constitutional Statutes PDF Author: Richard Albert
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351201816
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This book examines the interstices among statutory enactment, constitutional convention and formal constitution in which quasi-constitutionality exists. It provides a focal resource that can serve as a point of reference for scholars interested in quasi-constitutionality as a whole, from national and transnational perspectives, expanding on its many forms, functions, and applications with recourse to comparative insights. The book is divided in three main Parts, each of them preceded by a separate critical introduction in which an informed scholar contextualizes the chapters and offers reflections on the themes they develop. The first Part, titled 'Forms', is composed of chapters that address, from a theoretical and comparative perspective, questions related to the recognition of constitutional statutes and quasi-constitutional legislation. The second Part is titled 'Functions', and contains chapters that explore the explanatory power of quasi-constitutionality in different institutional contexts. The third Part, titled 'Applications', considers the ways in which constitutional statutes and quasi-constitutionality operate in relation to particular tensions and debates present in various jurisdictions.

The Application of Quasi-Constitutional Laws

The Application of Quasi-Constitutional Laws PDF Author: James Spigelman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The scope of constitutional law is not confined to the exegesis of a specific text called “The Constitution”. Particularly in nations that have inherited the Westminster system of government from the United Kingdom, which has no written constitution, some statutes and common law doctrines are of such fundamental significance that they should be recognised as constitutional in nature. These include the range of presumptions of the law of statutory interpretation which can be categorised as a common law bill of rights. The interpretation of legislation which may affect fundamental rights and liberties proceeds by the application of a “clear statement principle”, based on the assumption that a legislature would not abrogate any such rights without clear and unambiguous words. This paper compares the clear statement principle with the application of statutory provisions in contemporary Human Rights Acts that require courts to strive to interpret other legislation to be compliant with the human rights protected by such statutes. These special principles of statutory interpretation reflect the quasi-constitutional nature of the common law bill of rights or the rights listed in a Human Rights Act.

Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law

Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law PDF Author: Bruce P. Frohnen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674968921
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Americans are increasingly ruled by an unwritten constitution consisting of executive orders, signing statements, and other forms of quasi-law that lack the predictability and consistency essential for the legal system to function properly. As a result, the U.S. Constitution no longer means what it says to the people it is supposed to govern, and the government no longer acts according to the rule of law. These developments can be traced back to a change in “constitutional morality,” Bruce Frohnen and George Carey argue in this challenging book. The principle of separation of powers among co-equal branches of government formed the cornerstone of America’s original constitutional morality. But toward the end of the nineteenth century, Progressives began to attack this bedrock principle, believing that it impeded government from “doing the people’s business.” The regime of mixed powers, delegation, and expansive legal interpretation they instituted rejected the ideals of limited government that had given birth to the Constitution. Instead, Progressives promoted a governmental model rooted in French revolutionary claims. They replaced a Constitution designed to mediate among society’s different geographic and socioeconomic groups with a body of quasi-laws commanding the democratic reformation of society. Pursuit of this Progressive vision has become ingrained in American legal and political culture—at the cost, according to Frohnen and Carey, of the constitutional safeguards that preserve the rule of law.

Quasi-constitutional Laws of Canada

Quasi-constitutional Laws of Canada PDF Author: John Helis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781552214947
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
This work provides a much-needed overview of quasi-constitutional laws of Canada. These laws comprise several categories of federal and provincial statutes, including human rights, access-to-information, privacy, language rights, and the traditional civil liberties, as well as a common law principle.

Constitutional Legislation in the United States, Its Origin, and Application to the Relative Powers of Congress, and of State Legislatures (Classic Reprint)

Constitutional Legislation in the United States, Its Origin, and Application to the Relative Powers of Congress, and of State Legislatures (Classic Reprint) PDF Author: John Ordronaux
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781330548813
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 708

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Book Description
Excerpt from Constitutional Legislation in the United States, Its Origin, and Application to the Relative Powers of Congress, and of State Legislatures The accompanying work is an attempt to present in a concrete form the entire system of Federal and State legislation, as practised under a written Constitution in the United States. Its object is to expound those administrative powers which, in our dual form of representative government, are sovereign within their several spheres of action. In tracing them along their respective borderlines to points where they either concur in operation, or conflict in jurisdiction, it has been necessary to explore the channels of our constitutional jurisprudence in their affiliated relations with statutory law. A written Constitution is a political grammar to whose rules administrative laws must conform, in order to give them judicial validity. Accordingly, the author's aim has been to exhibit the foundations of our political system; to trace its development into a Federal government of balanced powers, and to search out the reasons which animate their exercise, as historically evolved and judicially interpreted. Under a political system framed as is ours, the most important legal forces are unquestionably those sovereign powers of Federal and State legislation which, in their governmental relations, bear to each other certain quasi-international aspects. The government of forty-four independent States, dwelling in harmonious relations under a supervisory Federal sovereignty, would seem, therefore, to justify the treatment of Legislation as a department of jurisprudence meriting more textual consideration than it has yet received. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Living Constitution

The Living Constitution PDF Author: David A. Strauss
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199703698
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once remarked that the theory of an evolving, "living" Constitution effectively "rendered the Constitution useless." He wanted a "dead Constitution," he joked, arguing it must be interpreted as the framers originally understood it. In The Living Constitution, leading constitutional scholar David Strauss forcefully argues against the claims of Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, and other "originalists," explaining in clear, jargon-free English how the Constitution can sensibly evolve, without falling into the anything-goes flexibility caricatured by opponents. The living Constitution is not an out-of-touch liberal theory, Strauss further shows, but a mainstream tradition of American jurisprudence--a common-law approach to the Constitution, rooted in the written document but also based on precedent. Each generation has contributed precedents that guide and confine judicial rulings, yet allow us to meet the demands of today, not force us to follow the commands of the long-dead Founders. Strauss explores how judicial decisions adapted the Constitution's text (and contradicted original intent) to produce some of our most profound accomplishments: the end of racial segregation, the expansion of women's rights, and the freedom of speech. By contrast, originalism suffers from fatal flaws: the impossibility of truly divining original intent, the difficulty of adapting eighteenth-century understandings to the modern world, and the pointlessness of chaining ourselves to decisions made centuries ago. David Strauss is one of our leading authorities on Constitutional law--one with practical knowledge as well, having served as Assistant Solicitor General of the United States and argued eighteen cases before the United States Supreme Court. Now he offers a profound new understanding of how the Constitution can remain vital to life in the twenty-first century.

Global Environmental Constitutionalism

Global Environmental Constitutionalism PDF Author: James R. May
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107022258
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
Reflecting a global trend, scores of countries have affirmed that their citizens are entitled to healthy air, water, and land and that their constitution should guarantee certain environmental rights. This book examines the increasing recognition that the environment is a proper subject for protection in constitutional texts and for vindication by constitutional courts. This phenomenon, which the authors call environmental constitutionalism, represents the confluence of constitutional law, international law, human rights, and environmental law. National apex and constitutional courts are exhibiting a growing interest in environmental rights, and as courts become more aware of what their peers are doing, this momentum is likely to increase. This book explains why such provisions came into being, how they are expressed, and the extent to which they have been, and might be, enforced judicially. It is a singular resource for evaluating the content of and hope for constitutional environmental rights.

How to Understand Statutes and Regulations

How to Understand Statutes and Regulations PDF Author: Nancy McCormack
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780779880133
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description


Making Equality Rights Real

Making Equality Rights Real PDF Author: Fay Faraday
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781552211182
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages : 527

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Book Description
Equality is a hotly contested Charter right and a bedrock Canadian value. This book assesses equality jurisprudence from many angles. Each of the 13 papers in this collection aims to deepen our understanding of the dynamics of inequality and oppression, thereby enriching the legal framework for eradicating and promoting substantive equality.

A Republic of Statutes

A Republic of Statutes PDF Author: William N. Eskridge (Jr.)
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300120885
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 591

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Book Description
William Eskridge and John Ferejohn propose an original theory of constitutional law whereby, while the Constitution provides a vision, our democracy advances by means of statutes that supplement or even supplant the written Constitution.