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Constitution making is a topic of increasing scholarly and
practical interest. Focusing on a set of important case studies,
yet also featuring classic articles on the subject, this volume is
a critical assembly of theoretical literature. Ensuring wide
geographic and historical coverage, and including an original
introduction by the editors, this collection provides an essential
overview of the myriad of circumstances in which constitutions can
be made.
Security sector reform (SSR) is central to the democratic
transitions currently unfolding across the globe, as a diverse
range of countries grapple with how to transform militias, tribal
forces, and dominant military, police, and intelligence agencies
into democratically controlled and accountable security services.
SSR will be a key element in shifts from authoritarian to
democratic rule for the foreseeable future, since abuse of the
security sector is a central technique of autocratic government.
This edited collection advances solutions through a selection of
case studies from around the world that cover a wide range of
contexts.
The migration of constitutional ideas across jurisdictions is
rapidly emerging as one of the central features of contemporary
constitutional practice. The increasing use of comparative
jurisprudence in interpreting constitutions is one example of this.
In this book, leading figures in the study of comparative
constitutionalism and comparative constitutional politics from
North America, Europe and Australia discuss the dynamic processes
whereby constitutional systems influence each other. They explore
basic methodological questions which have thus far received little
attention, and examine the complex relationship between national
and supranational constitutionalism - an issue of considerable
contemporary interest in Europe. The migration of constitutional
ideas is discussed from a variety of methodological perspectives -
comparative law, comparative politics, and cultural studies of law
- and contributors draw on case-studies from a wide variety of
jurisdictions: Australia, Hungary, India, South Africa, the United
Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
How should constitutional design respond to the opportunities and
challenges raised by ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural
differences, and do so in ways that promote democracy, social
justice, peace and stability? This is one of the most difficult
questions facing societies in the world today.
There are two schools of thought on how to answer this question.
Under the heading of "accommodation," some have argued for the need
to recognize, institutionalize and empower differences. There are a
range of constitutional instruments available to achieve this goal,
such as multinational federalism and administrative
decentralization, legal pluralism (e.g. religious personal law),
other forms of non-territorial minority rights (e.g. minority
language and religious education rights), consociationalism,
affirmative action, legislative quotas, etc. But others have
countered that such practices may entrench, perpetuate and
exacerbate the very divisions they are designed to manage. They
propose a range of alternative strategies that fall under the
rubric of "integration" that will blur, transcend and cross-cut
differences. Such strategies include bills of rights enshrining
universal human rights enforced by judicial review, policies of
disestablishment (religious and ethnocultural), federalism and
electoral systems designed specifically to include members of
different groups within the same political unit and to disperse
members of the same group across different units, are some
examples.
In this volume, leading scholars of constitutional law,
comparative politics and political theory address the debate at a
conceptual level, as well as through numerous country case-studies,
through an interdisciplinary lens, but with a legal and
institutional focus.
This collection of essays surveys the full range of challenges that
territorial conflicts pose for constitution-making processes and
constitutional design. It provides seventeen in-depth case studies
of countries going through periods of intense constitutional
engagement in a variety of contexts: small distinct territories,
bi-communal countries, highly diverse countries with many
politically salient regions, and countries where territorial
politics is important but secondary to other bases for political
mobilization. Specific examples are drawn from Iraq, Kenya, Cyprus,
Nigeria, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the UK (Scotland), Ukraine,
Bolivia, India, Spain, Yemen, Nepal, Ethiopia, Indonesia (Aceh),
the Philippines (Mindanao), and Bosnia-Herzegovina. While the
volume draws significant normative conclusions, it is based on a
realist view of the complexity of territorial and other political
cleavages (the country's "political geometry"), and the power
configurations that lead into periods of constitutional engagement.
Thematic chapters on constitution-making processes and
constitutional design draw original conclusions from the
comparative analysis of the case studies and relate these to the
existing literature, both in political science and comparative
constitutional law. This volume is essential reading for scholars
of federalism, consociational power-sharing arrangements,
asymmetrical devolution, and devolution more generally. The
combination of in-depth case studies and broad thematic analysis
allows for analytical and normative conclusions that will be of
major relevance to practitioners and advisors engaged in
constitutional design.
The Indian Constitution is one of the world's longest and most
important political texts. Its birth, over six decades ago,
signalled the arrival of the first major post-colonial constitution
and the world's largest and arguably most daring democratic
experiment. Apart from greater domestic focus on the Constitution
and the institutional role of the Supreme Court within India's
democratic framework, recent years have also witnessed enormous
comparative interest in India's constitutional experiment. The
Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution is a wide-ranging,
analytical reflection on the major themes and debates that surround
India's Constitution. The Handbook provides a comprehensive account
of the developments and doctrinal features of India's Constitution,
as well as articulating frameworks and methodological approaches
through which studies of Indian constitutionalism, and
constitutionalism more generally, might proceed. Its contributions
range from rigorous, legal studies of provisions within the text to
reflections upon historical trends and social practices. As such
the Handbook is an essential reference point not merely for Indian
and comparative constitutional scholars, but for students of Indian
democracy more generally.
The migration of constitutional ideas across jurisdictions is one
of the central features of contemporary constitutional practice.
The increasing use of comparative jurisprudence in interpreting
constitutions is one example of this. In this 2007 book, leading
figures in the study of comparative constitutionalism and
comparative constitutional politics from North America, Europe and
Australia discuss the dynamic processes whereby constitutional
systems influence each other. They explore basic methodological
questions which have thus far received little attention, and
examine the complex relationship between national and supranational
constitutionalism - an issue of considerable contemporary interest
in Europe. The migration of constitutional ideas is discussed from
a variety of methodological perspectives - comparative law,
comparative politics, and cultural studies of law - and
contributors draw on case-studies from a wide variety of
jurisdictions: Australia, Hungary, India, South Africa, the United
Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
Since the rise of the Canadian welfare state in the aftermath of
the Second World War, the politics of social policy and fiscal
federalism have been at the centre of federal-provincial relations.
Recent events have given impetus for scholars to re-examine these
issues. In 2002, the Quebec Commission on Fiscal Imbalance released
its report, which introduced the term 'vertical fiscal imbalance'
into the vocabulary of Canadian politics. Essentially, the
commission determined that a disjunction between revenue-raising
capacity and expenditures involving different orders of government
- vertical fiscal imbalance - was an urgent problem that must be
addressed. Dilemmas of Solidarity is both a reflection on and
response to that finding. Editors Sujit Choudhry, Jean-Francois
Graudreault-Desbiens, and Lorne Sossin bring together an array of
respected legal and political scholars to reflect on the Quebec
Commission's findings. The contributors to this volume illustrate
how recent debates surrounding Canada's equalization program
suggest alternative ways to approach the issue. The goal of
Dilemmas of Solidarity is to stand back from the particulars of
different policy debates, to enable scholars to reflect on basic
questions regarding redistribution. This fascinating collection
will undoubtedly inform a more nuanced and wide-ranging debate both
among academics and policy practitioners than has occurred in this
past. Contributors: Paul Boothe Katherine Boothe Sujit Choudhry
David Duff Jean-Francois Gaudreault-DesBiens Andree Lajoie Alain
Noel Peter H. Russell Richard Simeon Lorne Sossin Fran ois
Vaillancourt Daniel Weinstock.
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