Explaining Constitutional Change

Explaining Constitutional Change

Author: Stefan Voigt

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13:

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Stefan Voigt examines the emergence of constitutions and how and why they change. He proposes that they are based on spontaneously-developed institutions and presents predictions on the scope of change under various setting and factors.


Responding to Imperfection

Responding to Imperfection

Author: Sanford Levinson

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 1995-01-24

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1400821630

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An increasing number of constitutional theorists, within both the legal academy and university departments of government, are focusing on the conceptual and political problems attached to the notion of constitutional amendment. Amendments are, among other things, recognitions of the imperfection of existing schemes of government. The relative ease or difficulty of amendment has significant implications for the ways that governments respond to problems that call either for new structures of governance or new powers for already established structures. This book brings together essays by leading legal authorities and political scientists on a range of questions from whether the U.S. Constitution is subject to amendment by procedures other than those authorized by Article V to how significant change is conceptualized within classical rabbinic Judaism. Though the essays are concerned for the most part with the American experience, other constitutional traditions are considered as well. The contributors include Bruce Ackerman, Akhil Reed Amar, Mark E. Brandon, David R. Dow, Stephen M. Griffin, Stephen Holmes and Cass R. Sunstein, Sanford Levinson, Donald Lutz, Walter Murphy, Frederick Schauer, John R. Vile, and Noam J. Zohar.


Re-Framers

Re-Framers

Author: John R. Vile

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2014-07-15

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 1610697340

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This book is the most comprehensive review of all the major proposals to rewrite, revise, or even replace the U.S. Constitution, covering more than 170 proposals from the nation's beginnings to the present day. The U.S. Constitution was carefully written by a remarkable group of men, but subsequent generations of Americans have devoted enormous time and energy to "improving" it. From colonial times to the present day, Americans of all political persuasions have campaigned to reform, remake, or replace this key document. The growth of the Internet and self-publishing has spawned a virtual explosion of such proposals. This book documents the numerous ideas for change—some practical, some idealistic, and some bordering on fanatical—that reflect America's Constitutional heritage and could shape the nation's future. Re-Framers: 170 Eccentric, Visionary, and Patriotic Proposals to Rewrite the U.S. Constitution sets the stage for this review by describing various prequels to the U.S. Constitution and explaining how the final document emerged at the Constitutional Convention. The subsequent chapters examine many proposed alternatives and revisions to the Constitution from its establishment until the present, illuminating perceived strengths and weaknesses of the current document as well as the pros and cons of possible amendments. Readers ranging from lay citizens who are interested in constitutional issues to historians, political scientists, law professors, and reference librarians will all benefit from this unparalleled examination of proposed constitutional amendment.


Engineering Constitutional Change

Engineering Constitutional Change

Author: Xenophon Contiades

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-12-20

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 1136210776

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This volume provides a holistic presentation of the reality of constitutional change in 18 countries (the 15 old EU member states, Canada, Switzerland and the USA). The essays offer analysis on formal and informal constitutional amendment bringing forth the overall picture of the parallel paths constitutional change follows, in correlation to what the constitution means and how constitutional law works. To capture the patterns of constitutional change, multi-faceted parameters are explored such as the interrelations between form of government, party system, and constitutional amendment; the interplay between constitutional change and the system of constitutionality review; the role of the people, civil society, and experts in constitutional change; and the influence of international and European law and jurisprudence on constitutional reform and evolution. In the extensive final, comparative chapter, key features of each country’s amendment procedures are epitomized and the mechanisms of constitutional change are explained on the basis of introducing five distinct models of constitutional change. The concept of constitutional rigidity is re-approached and broken down to a set of factual and institutional rigidities. The classification of countries within models, in accordance with the way in which operative amending mechanisms connect, leads to a succinct portrayal of different modes of constitutional change engineering. This book will prove to be an invaluable tool for approaching constitutional revision either for theoretical or for practical purposes and will be of particular interest to students and scholars of constitutional, comparative and public law.


Creating Constitutional Change

Creating Constitutional Change

Author: Gregg Ivers

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780813923031

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"Because the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court interpret the Constitution, their decisions can create constitutional change. For quite some time, general readers interested in understanding those changes have not had access to a concise volume that explores the major decisions through which those changes occur. In order to make a wide range of decisions more comprehensible, Gregg Ivers and Kevin T. McGuire commissioned twenty-four outstanding scholars to write essays on a selected series of Supreme Court cases. Chosen for their contemporary relevance, most of the cases addressed in this informative reader are from the last half-century, extending right up through Bush v. Gore and the 2003 Michigan affirmative actions cases"--Unedited summary from paperback cover.


Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments

Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments

Author: Yaniv Roznai

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-02-16

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0191081442

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Can constitutional amendments be unconstitutional? The problem of 'unconstitutional constitutional amendments' has become one of the most widely debated issues in comparative constitutional theory, constitutional design, and constitutional adjudication. This book describes and analyses the increasing tendency in global constitutionalism to substantively limit formal changes to constitutions. The challenges of constitutional unamendability to constitutional theory become even more complex when constitutional courts enforce such limitations through substantive judicial review of amendments, often resulting in the declaration that these constitutional amendments are 'unconstitutional'. Combining historical comparisons, constitutional theory, and a wide comparative study, Yaniv Roznai sets out to explain what the nature of amendment power is, what its limitations are, and what the role of constitutional courts is and should be when enforcing limitations on constitutional amendments.


Constitutional Revolution

Constitutional Revolution

Author: Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2020-05-19

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 0300231024

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Few terms in political theory are as overused, and yet as under-theorized, as constitutional revolution. In this book, Gary Jacobsohn and Yaniv Roznai argue that the most widely accepted accounts of constitutional transformation, such as those found in the work of Hans Kelsen, Hannah Arendt, and Bruce Ackerman, fail adequately to explain radical change. For example, a "constitutional moment" may or may not accompany the onset of a constitutional revolution. The consolidation of revolutionary aspirations may take place over an extended period. The "moment" may have been under way for decades--or there may be no such moment at all. On the other hand, seemingly radical breaks in a constitutional regime actually may bring very little change in constitutional practice and identity. Constructing a clarifying lens for comprehending the many ways in which constitutional revolutions occur, the authors seek to capture the essence of what happens when constitutional paradigms change.


Revolution, Transition, Memory, and Oblivion

Revolution, Transition, Memory, and Oblivion

Author: Martin Belov

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2020-12-25

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1800370539

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This timely book offers a novel theory of constitutional revolutions, providing a new and engaging framework for critically assessing how revolutions and contra-revolutions, transitional periods and the phenomenon of oblivion influence constitutional change.


Constitutional Change and Transformation in Latin America

Constitutional Change and Transformation in Latin America

Author: Richard Albert

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1509923519

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Over the past 30 years, Latin America has lived through an intense period of constitutional change. Some reforms have been limited in their design and impact, while others have been far-reaching transformations to basic structural features and fundamental rights. Scholars interested in the law and politics of constitutional change in Latin America are turning increasingly to comparative methodologies to expose the nature and scope of these changes, to uncover the motivations of political actors, to theorise how better to execute the procedures of constitutional reform, and to assess whether there should be any limitations on the power of constitutional amendment. In this collection, leading and emerging voices in Latin American constitutionalism explore the complexity of the vast topography of constitutional developments, experiments and perspectives in the region. This volume offers a deep understanding of modern constitutional change in Latin America and evaluates its implications for constitutionalism, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.