Books in the Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy series

This volume explores the form and function of constitutions in countries without the fully articulated institutions of limited government.

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.

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.

A collection of essays examining the latest constitutional developments in sixteen East, Southeast and South Asian countries since the beginning of the twenty-first century. With comparative, historical and analytical perspectives on Asian constitutionalism, this will appeal to students and scholars interested in the origins or contemporary manifestations of constitutionalism in Asia.

South Asia, despite being the site of the world's largest constitutional democracy, is underrepresented in comparative legal scholarship. This book remedies this lack of attention by examining constitutional law in five South Asian countries: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

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 addresses the role of constitutions and constitutionalism in dealing with the challenges of social difference such as religion or race and ethnicity. The book brings together lawyers, political scientists, historians, religious studies scholars, and area studies experts to consider how constitutions address issues of difference across Pan-Asia.

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 volume explores the social and political forces behind constitution making from a global perspective. It combines leading theoretical perspectives with in-depth case studies from nineteen countries. The result is an examination of constitutions as social phenomena and their interaction with other social phenomena, from various perspectives.

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.

This volume brings together essays by leading scholars of comparative constitutional design from myriad disciplinary perspectives. The authors collectively assess what we know - and do not know - about the design process as well as particular institutional choices concerning executive power, constitutional amendment processes and many other issues.

There is great interest among scholars and practitioners about when a proposed constitution is likely to succeed. But what does it mean for a constitution to succeed? By exploring an array of constitutional histories, this book shows how ideas of constitutional success play out differently in different contexts.

This volume explores the form and function of constitutions in countries without the fully articulated institutions of limited government.

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.

Maps the roles in governance that courts now undertake. Offering empirically rich accounts of dramatic judicial actions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, this book explores the political conditions and judicial strategies that have fostered those assertions of power, and evaluates when and how courts' assertions of new roles have been politically consequential.

Maps the roles in governance that courts now undertake. Offering empirically rich accounts of dramatic judicial actions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, this book explores the political conditions and judicial strategies that have fostered those assertions of power, and evaluates when and how courts' assertions of new roles have been politically consequential.

This volume explores the social and political forces behind constitution making from a global perspective. It combines leading theoretical perspectives with in-depth case studies from nineteen countries. The result is an examination of constitutions as social phenomena and their interaction with other social phenomena, from various perspectives.

To mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, this book gathers top scholars from the UK and US to analyse its historic and contemporary influence. Using a political science framework and a global scope extending from the UK to the Americas and the Pacific, the authors puncture numerous enduring myths.

To mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, this book gathers top scholars from the UK and US to analyse its historic and contemporary influence. Using a political science framework and a global scope extending from the UK to the Americas and the Pacific, the authors puncture numerous enduring myths.

Constitutions, Religion and Politics in Asia presents a detailed comparative study on how constitutional clauses on religion operate in three religiously plural societies. Shah explains the origins of these clauses and examines how they have been interpreted and enforced, demonstrating the unintended and adverse consequences on religious freedom.

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.