Comparative Constitutional Law

Author(s):  
Mark Tushnet

This article examines the evolution of the field of comparative constitutional law and its relationship to politics and international rights; constitutionalism; constitutional foundings and transformations; constitutional structures; structures of judicial review; generic constitutional law; and national identity. Innumerable comparative studies address the ways in which different constitutions and constitutional systems deal with specific topics, such as privacy, free expression, and gender equality. However valuable such studies have been in bringing information about other constitutional systems to the attention of scholars versed in their own systems, their analytic payoff is sometimes questionable. Scholarship in comparative constitutional law is perhaps too often insufficiently sensitive to national differences that generate differences in domestic constitutional law. Or, put another way, that scholarship may too often rest on an implicit but insufficiently defended preference for the universalist approach to comparative legal study over the particularist one.

Author(s):  
Mark Tushnet

This article examines the evolution of the field of comparative constitutional law and its relationship to politics and international rights; constitutionalism; constitutional foundings and transformations; constitutional structures; structures of judicial review; generic constitutional law; and national identity. Innumerable comparative studies address the ways in which different constitutions and constitutional systems deal with specific topics, such as privacy, free expression, and gender equality. However valuable such studies have been in bringing information about other constitutional systems to the attention of scholars versed in their own systems, their analytic payoff is sometimes questionable. Scholarship in comparative constitutional law is perhaps too often insufficiently sensitive to national differences that generate differences in domestic constitutional law. Or, put another way, that scholarship may too often rest on an implicit but insufficiently defended preference for the universalist approach to comparative legal study over the particularist one.


Author(s):  
Natalie R. Davidson ◽  
Leora Bilsky

In comparative constitutional law, the various models of judicial review require courts to examine either the substantive content of legislation or the procedure through which legislation was passed. This article offers a new model of judicial review – ‘the judicial review of legality’ – in which courts review instead the forms of law. The forms of law are the ways in which law communicates its norms to the persons who are meant to comply with them, and they include generality, clarity, avoidance of contradiction, and non-retroactivity. Drawing on recent writing on the jurisprudence of Lon Fuller, this article argues that Fuller’s linking of the forms of law to a relationship of reciprocity between government and governed can ground judicial review and that such review provides a missing language to address important legislative pathologies. Moreover, through an analysis of recent developments in Israel, the article demonstrates that the judicial review of legality targets some of the key legal techniques of contemporary processes of democratic erosion which other models of judicial review struggle to address, all the while re-centring judicial review on the lawyer’s craftsmanship and thus reducing problems of court legitimacy. This article therefore offers a distinctive and normatively appealing way for courts to act in troubling times.


Author(s):  
Adam Shinar ◽  
Barak Medina ◽  
Gila Stopler

Abstract Israeli constitutionalism has long interested comparative constitutional law scholars, whether due to its geopolitical status, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, its internal divisions, or its unique constitutional evolution. Unlike many other countries that have ratified constitutions after the Second World War, Israel was established as a parliamentary democracy, with an explicit intention to ratify a constitution at a later stage. This did not happen. Instead, it underwent a “constitutional revolution” announced by its Supreme Court. Fitting a revolution, much of comparative constitutional law scholarship has focused on this pivotal moment. The articles in this symposium depart from the scholarship focused on that moment. They seek to critically understand what has become of Israeli constitutionalism in the past decade. In this introduction, we highlight several transformations and features which we believe are essential if one is to understand the extant constitutional order in Israel. These should be understood as background conditions against which Israeli constitutionalism is operating. They include the strengthening of judicial review alongside rising political resistance to the Court’s power; populism in political discourse targeting rule of law institutions; the erosion of individual rights alongside the strengthening of nationalist elements; and increasing divisions inside Israeli society. These challenge the idea of a successful constitutional revolution in terms of its inherent promise to better protect individual rights and safeguard the rule of law. In describing these features, we seek to situate the Supreme Court, judicial review, and the legal-constitutional order generally, in the larger sphere of Israeli society and politics.


2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 334-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosmary Crompton ◽  
Nicky Le Feuvre

In this paper, we will explore how contrasting national discourses relating to women, and gender equality have been incorporated into and reflected in national policies. In the first section, we will outline the recent history of EU equal opportunities policy, in which positive action has been replaced by a policy of 'mainstreaming'. Second, we will describe the evolution of policies towards women and equal opportunities in Britain and France. It will be argued that whereas some degree of positive action for women has been accepted in Britain, this policy is somewhat alien to French thinking about equality - although pro-natalist French policies have resulted in favourable conditions for employed mothers in France. In the third section, we will present some attitudinal evidence, drawn from national surveys, which would appear to reflect the national policy differences we have identified in respect of the 'equality agenda'. In the fourth section, we will draw upon biographical interviews carried out with men and women in British and French banks in order to illustrate the impact of these cross-national differences within organizations and on individual lives. We demonstrate that positive action gender equality policies have made an important impact in British banks, while overt gender exclusionary practices still persist in the French banks studied. In the conclusion, we reflect on the European policy implications of our findings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (102) ◽  
pp. 373
Author(s):  
Rodrigo González Quintero ◽  
Luis Javier Moreno Ortiz

Resumen:Este artículo se centra en la poco explorada cuestión las competencias secundarias de la Corte Constitucional colombiana, en especial sobre la competencia de decidir sobre las excusas a los emplazamientos que hace el Congreso en ejercicio de su control político y público. Para este propósito se estudia el origen de esta competencia en la Asamblea Nacional Constituyente, se la analiza en el contexto de otras experiencias constitucionales y se considera,a partir de fuentes teóricas (normativas y doctrinales) y evidencia empírica(estudio de casos), dos hipótesis sobre su naturaleza y alcance, para concluirque se trata de una competencia jurisdiccional, que se concreta en una providencia judicial que hace tránsito a cosa juzgada, y que puede tenerse comouna modalidad especial del control de constitucionalidad.Abstract:This article is focused on the ill studied topic of the Colombian Constitutional Court’s ancillary powers, and especially on its decisions regarding a person’s refusal to attend hearings related to Congress’ control functions. Thus, the text begins with the origins of this power discussed at the constituent assembly, then analyzing it in Comparative Constitutional Law. Also taking into account both theoretical and practical elements — such as doctrine, norms and case law—, it does propose two hypotheses concerning its character and effects, concluding that entails an exercise of judicial power with res iudicata force and that it comprises a especial type of judicial review.Summary:Introduction. I. An Approach to the Colombian Judicial Review System. II. Ancillary Powers to Judicial Review: Debates and Adoption at the Constitutional Assembly. III. Ancillary Powers to Judicial Review in the Constitutional Court’s Case Law. IV. Ancillary Powers to Judicial Review in Comparative Law. V. Constitutional Court’s Decisions regarding Excuses for Subpoenas. Nature. Holdings. VI. Conclusions. Bibliography 


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Strange

Abstract In May 2018, voters in the Republic of Ireland passed a referendum proposal to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, lifting the Irish state’s near-total ban on abortion. Scholars have argued that Ireland’s abortion ban has historically played a key role in the construction of Irish national identity along Catholic, traditional, and heteronormative lines, meaning the lead-up to the vote allowed for key insights into the discursive construction of national identity and gender in Ireland. Drawing on theoretical discussions in both the nationalism and Linguistic Landscape (LL) literature and adopting a qualitative, multimodal approach to analyse the referendum campaign’s LL, I argue that there was a dominant understanding of the relationship between women and Irish national identity, predicated on a positive stance towards Irish identity, while any dissenting voices which questioned whether advancing gender equality was compatible with nationalist ideology were confined to the margins of the debate.


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