Constitutional Pariah
Constitutional Pariah

Author: Emmett Macfarlane

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2021-04-01

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 0774866241

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The Canadian Senate has long been considered an institutional pariah, viewed as an undemocratic, outmoded warehouse for patronage appointments and mired in spending and workload scandals. In 2014, the federal government was compelled to refer constitutional questions to the Supreme Court relating to its attempts to enact senatorial elections and term limits. Constitutional Pariah explores the aftermath of Reference re Senate Reform, which barred major unilateral alteration of the Senate by Parliament. Ironically, the decision resulted in one of the most sweeping parliamentary reforms in Canadian history, creating a pathway to informal changes in the appointments process that have curbed patronage and partisanship. Despite reinvigorating the Senate, Reference re Senate Reform has far-reaching implications for constitutional reform in other contexts. Macfarlane’s sharp critique suggests that the Court’s nebulous approach to the amending formula raises the spectre of a frozen constitution, unable to evolve with the country.

Constitutional Crossroads
Constitutional Crossroads

Author: Kate Puddister

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2022-12-01

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 0774867949

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Four decades have passed since the adoption of the Constitution Act, 1982. Now it is time to assess its legacy. As Constitutional Crossroads makes clear, the 1982 constitutional package raises a host of questions about a number of important issues, including identity and pluralism, the scope and limits of rights, competing constitutional visions, the relationship between the state and Indigenous peoples, and the nature of constitutional change. This collection brings together an impressive assembly of established and rising stars of political science and law, who not only provide a robust account of the 1982 reform but also analyze the ensuing scholarship that has shaped our understanding of the Constitution. Contributors bypass historical description to offer reflective analyses of different aspects of Canada’s constitution as it is understood in the twenty-first century. With a focus on the themes of rights, reconciliation, and constitutional change, Constitutional Crossroads provides profound insights into institutional relationships, public policy, and the state of the fields of law and politics.

Citizen and Pariah
Citizen and Pariah

Author: Vanya Gastrow

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2022-03

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1776147391

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Citizen and Pariah explores the fragility of law, pluralism and democracy in South Africa by investigating Somali informal shopkeepers’ experiences of crime, justice and regulation in the country. Through a narrative account of their local experiences, the book sheds light on the legal and political predicaments they face.

The Collaborative Constitution
The Collaborative Constitution

Author: Aileen Kavanagh

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-09-30

Total Pages: 509

ISBN-13: 110862247X

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Using a theoretical and comparative perspective, Aileen Kavanagh argues that protecting rights in a constitutional democracy is a collaborative enterprise between all three branches of government: the Executive, legislature, and courts. With examples from multiple jurisdictions, this book documents the dynamics of collaborative constitutionalism.

Antisemitism and the Constitution of Sociology
Antisemitism and the Constitution of Sociology

Author: Marcel Stoetzler

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2014-06-17

Total Pages: 493

ISBN-13: 0803266715

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Modern antisemitism and the modern discipline of sociology not only emerged in the same period, butOCoantagonism and hostility between the two discourses notwithstandingOCoalso overlapped and complemented each other. Sociology emerged in a society where modernization was often perceived as destroying unity and OC social cohesion.OCO Antisemitism was likewise a response to the modern age, offering in its vilifications of OC the JewOCO an explanation of societyOCOs deficiencies and crises. a"Antisemitism and the Constitution of Sociology" is a collection of essays providing a comparative analysis of modern antisemitism and the rise of sociology. This volume addresses three key areas: the strong influence of writers of Jewish background and the rising tide of antisemitism on the formation of sociology; the role of antisemitism in the historical development of sociology through its treatment by leading figures in the field, such as Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Theodor W. Adorno; and the disciplineOCOs development in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust. Together the essays provide a fresh perspective on the history of sociology and the role that antisemitism, Jews, fascism, and the Holocaust played in shaping modern social theory. a"

Cities and the Constitution
Cities and the Constitution

Author: Alexandra Flynn

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2024-10-15

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 0228022096

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Canada’s largest cities have faced exponential growth, with the trajectory rising further still. Due to their high density, cities are the primary sites for opportunities in economic prosperity, green innovation, and cultural activity, and also for critical challenges in homelessness and extreme poverty, air pollution, Indigenous-municipal relationship-building, racial injustice, and transportation gridlock. While city governments are at the forefront of mitigating the challenges of urban life, they are given insufficient power to effectively attend to public needs. Cities and the Constitution confronts the misalignment between the importance of municipalities and their constitutional status. While our constitution is often considered a living document, Canada has one of the most complicated amending formulas in the world, making change very difficult. Cities are thus constitutionally vulnerable to unilateral provincial action and reliant on other levels of government for funding. Could municipal power be reimagined without disrupting the existing constitutional structure, or could the Constitution be reformed to designate cities a distinct tier of government? Among other novel proposals, this groundbreaking volume explores the idea of recognizing municipalities in provincial constitutions. The first volume of a complementary pair, authored by renowned Canadian legal and urban studies scholars, Cities and the Constitution suggests contemporary solutions to one of our most pressing policy dilemmas.

Equality and Liberty in the Golden Age of State Constitutional Law
Equality and Liberty in the Golden Age of State Constitutional Law

Author: Jeffrey M Shaman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-04-14

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 019971522X

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The rise of the New Judicial Federalism movement in the 1970s marked a sea-change in the history of state constitutional law by shifting the focus of power away from the central government in ways that had not occurred since the Equal Protection Clause was enacted in 1868. With New Judicial Federalism, many states rediscovered that they were empowered to enact their own constitutions and to interpret them as they saw fit, which enabled states to recognize civil rights and liberties beyond those recognized under the Federal Constitution. Equality and Liberty in the Golden Age of State Constitutional Law closely examines the evolution of the rights of liberty and equality under state constitutions from both a historical and jurisprudential perspective. In it, Professor Jeffrey M. Shaman explains that as New Judicial Federalism gained ground, state constitutional law became an important source for the protection of individual rights and liberties. States have since expanded the right of the citizen well beyond the limits of federal law by striking down laws that led to de facto segregation in public schools, discriminated against women, or allocated public benefits inequitably. State courts were the first to recognize a right of intimate association, spurring the U.S. Supreme Court to follow suit. Equality and Liberty in the Golden Age of State Constitutional Law is essential reading for anyone interested in this manifestation of law that has developed beyond the purview of national attention and in the resulting evolution of power in U.S. constitutional law.

Poland's Constitutional Breakdown
Poland's Constitutional Breakdown

Author: Wojciech Sadurski

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0198840500

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Poland's anti-constitutional breakdown poses three questions that this book sets out to answer: What, exactly, has happened since 2015? Why did it happen? And what are the prospects for a return to liberal democracy?

Constitutional Self-Government
Constitutional Self-Government

Author: Christopher L. Eisgruber

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2001-09-30

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9780674006089

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Most of us regard the Constitution as the foundation of American democracy. How, then, are we to understand the restrictions that it imposes on legislatures and voters? Why, for example, does the Constitution allow unelected judges to exercise so much power? And why is this centuries-old document so difficult to amend? In short, how can we call ourselves a democracy when we are bound by an entrenched, and sometimes counter-majoritarian, constitution? In Constitutional Self-Government, Christopher Eisgruber focuses directly on the Constitution's seemingly undemocratic features. Whereas other scholars have tried to reconcile these features with majority rule, or simply acknowledged them as necessary limits on democracy, Eisgruber argues that constitutionalism is best regarded not as a constraint upon self-government, but as a crucial ingredient in a complex, non-majoritarian form of democracy. In an original and provocative argument, he contends that legislatures and elections provide only an incomplete representation of the people, and he claims that the Supreme Court should be regarded as another of the institutions able to speak for Americans about justice. At a pivotal moment of worldwide interest in judicial review and renewed national controversy over the Supreme Court's role in politics, Constitutional Self-Government ingeniously locates the Constitution's value in its capacity to sustain an array of institutions that render self-government meaningful for a large and diverse people.