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Articles 1 - 23 of 23
Full-Text Articles in Comparative and Foreign Law
Canadian Federalism In Design And Practice: The Mechanics Of A Permanently Provisional Constitution, James A. Gardner
Canadian Federalism In Design And Practice: The Mechanics Of A Permanently Provisional Constitution, James A. Gardner
Journal Articles
This paper examines the interaction between constitutional design and practice through a case study of Canadian federalism. Focusing on the federal architecture of the Canadian Constitution, the paper examines how subnational units in Canada actually compete with the central government, emphasizing the concrete strategies and tactics they most commonly employ to get their way in confrontations with central authority. The evidence affirms that constitutional design and structure make an important difference in the tactics and tools available to subnational units in a federal system, but that design is not fully constraining: there is considerable evidence of extraconstitutional innovation and improvisation …
Distinctive Identity Claims In Federal Systems: Judicial Policing Of Subnational Variance, Antoni Abat I Ninet, James A. Gardner
Distinctive Identity Claims In Federal Systems: Judicial Policing Of Subnational Variance, Antoni Abat I Ninet, James A. Gardner
Journal Articles
It is characteristic of federal states that the scope of subnational power and autonomy are subjects of frequent dispute, and that disagreements over the reach of national and subnational power may be contested in a wide and diverse array of settings. Subnational units determined to challenge nationally-imposed limits on their power typically have at their disposal many tools with which to press against formal boundaries. Federal systems, moreover, frequently display a surprising degree of tolerance for subnational obstruction, disobedience, and other behaviors intended to expand subnational authority and influence, even over national objection. This tolerance, however, has limits. In this …
Insights From Canada For American Constitutional Federalism, Stephen F. Ross
Insights From Canada For American Constitutional Federalism, Stephen F. Ross
Journal Articles
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 132 S. Ct. 2566 (2012), has again focused widespread public attention on the Court as an arbiter of the balance of power between the federal government and the states. The topic of the proper role a nation's highest court in this respect has been important and controversial throughout not only American, but also Canadian history, raising questions of constitutional theory for a federalist republic: What justifies unelected judges interfering with the ordinary political process with regard to federalism questions? Can courts create judicially manageable doctrines to police …
Sustainable Decentralization: Power, Extraconstitutional Influence, And Subnational Symmetry In The United States And Spain, James A. Gardner, Antoni Abat I Ninet
Sustainable Decentralization: Power, Extraconstitutional Influence, And Subnational Symmetry In The United States And Spain, James A. Gardner, Antoni Abat I Ninet
Journal Articles
In the Madisonian tradition of constitutional design, the foundation of a sustainable federalism is thought to be a scientifically precise balancing of national and subnational power. Experience shows, however, that national and subnational actors in highly diverse systems are capable of developing a rich array of extraconstitutional methods of mutual influence, so that the formal, constitutionalized balance of power rarely settles the question of the actual balance of power between levels of government. A more important factor in ensuring the long-term sustainability of a meaningfully federal system is the degree of symmetry across subnational units in their relation to the …
In Search Of Sub-National Constitutionalism, James A. Gardner
In Search Of Sub-National Constitutionalism, James A. Gardner
Journal Articles
Two recent trends, one favoring federalism as a form of governmental organization and the other favoring written constitutions, have lately combined to produce an impressive proliferation of subnational constitutions. Documents that can fairly be described as constitutions now govern the affairs of subnational units - states, provinces, cantons, Länder - in federal states on every continent. What remains unclear, however, is whether the proliferation of subnational constitutions indicates a corresponding spread of the practice of subnationalism constitutionalism - whether, that is, the appearance of subnational constitutions around the globe evinces a spreading ideological commitment to a strong role for subnational …
Free Speech And The Case For Constitutional Exceptionalism, Roger P. Alford
Free Speech And The Case For Constitutional Exceptionalism, Roger P. Alford
Journal Articles
Embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the evocative proposition that [e]veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. But beneath that level of abstraction there is anything but universal agreement. Modern democratic societies disagree on the text, content, theory, and practice of this liberty. They disagree on whether it is a privileged right or a subordinate value. They disagree on what constitutes speech and which speech is worthy of protection. They disagree on theoretical foundations, uncertain if the right is grounded in libertarian impulses, the promotion of a marketplace of ideas, or the advancement of …
Lower Courts And Constitutional Comparativism, Roger P. Alford
Lower Courts And Constitutional Comparativism, Roger P. Alford
Journal Articles
The issue of constitutional comparativism has been a topic of significant commentary in recent years. However, there is one aspect of this subject that has been almost completely ignored by scholars: the reception, or lack thereof, of constitutional comparativism by state and lower federal courts. While the Supreme Court's enthusiasm for constitutional comparativism has waxed and now waned, lower state and federal courts have remained resolutely agnostic about this new movement. This is of tremendous practical significance because over ninety-nine percent of all cases are resolved by lower state and federal courts. Accordingly, if the lower courts eschew constitutional comparativism, …
The Federal Constitutional Court: Guardian Of German Democracy, Donald P. Kommers
The Federal Constitutional Court: Guardian Of German Democracy, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court rivals the Supreme Court of the United States in protecting political democracy. Its jurisprudence of democracy has shaped the course and character of German politics while upholding the rule of law and defending the constitutionally prescribed “free democratic basic order.” In furtherance of these objectives, the Constitutional Court has invalidated regulations limiting the rights of minor parties and constitutionalizing measures designed to stabilize Germany’s system of parliamentary government. These purposes have been served by constitutional decisions on voting rights, public funding of election campaigns, dissolution of Parliament, and proportional representation, including the limiting 5 percent clause. …
Charter Insights For American Equality Jurisprudence, Stephen F. Ross
Charter Insights For American Equality Jurisprudence, Stephen F. Ross
Journal Articles
Although both the Canadian Charter and the United States Constitutions protect persons from denial of equal protection of the law, the interpretation of the broad language of the two equality guarantees has been quite different. The Supreme Court of Canada has adopted an approach of substantive equality, concluding that section 15 is designed to prevent the loss of human dignity that accompanies discrimination based on disadvantage and stereotype. At least with regard to race, a majority of the justices on the United States Supreme Court adhere to a jurisprudence of formal equality, concluding that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit …
An Introduction To The Federal Constitutional Court, Donald P. Kommers
An Introduction To The Federal Constitutional Court, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
This essay introduces the Federal Constitutional Court, briefly surveying the Court’s legal heritage, the history of its founding, its jurisdiction, and its structure.
A Comparative Constitutional Law Canon, Donald P. Kommers, John E. Finn
A Comparative Constitutional Law Canon, Donald P. Kommers, John E. Finn
Journal Articles
The article discusses what types of legal cases constitute a “canon” on American constitutional theory and comparative constitutional law, examples of case law that illustrate important developments in the two subjects. It describes the process taken by the article's authors to select a small sampling of 90 “canon” cases for their course book on American constitutional law, which is designed for the academic community and for undergraduate students enrolled in a traditional liberal arts curriculum.
The Federal Constitutional Court In The German Political System, Donald P. Kommers
The Federal Constitutional Court In The German Political System, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
The Federal Constitutional Court is a major policy-making institution in Germany's system of government. Within the space of four decades (1951- 1991), this tribunal has evolved into the most active and powerful constitutional court in Europe. Its pivotal character in the German political system sterns from its role as a judicial lawmaking body created for the specific purpose of deciding constitutional disputes under the Basic Law.1 In deciding such disputes-that is, in interpreting the language and spirit of the Basic Law-the Constitutional Court has influenced the shape of Germany's political landscape, reaching deep into the heart of the existing state, …
The Constitutional Law Of Abortion In Germany: Should Americans Pay Attention?, Donald P. Kommers
The Constitutional Law Of Abortion In Germany: Should Americans Pay Attention?, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
What I plan to do here is to tell you the story of Germany's legal approach to abortion and offer some tentative conclusions about what we Americans might learn from the German experience. My story centers mainly on the constitutionality of efforts in Germany to remove legal restrictions on abortion. In the United States, the story has a different twist, for there it centers on the constitutionality of efforts to impose legal restrictions on abortion. Both stories are fascinating accounts of constitutional decisionmaking, revealing as much about the values of the two societies as about the role of judicial review …
German Constitutionalism: A Prolegomenon, Donald P. Kommers
German Constitutionalism: A Prolegomenon, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
This essay sets out to describe the main features of German constitutionalism, and it concludes by drawing some comparisons with the United States. The term "constitutionalism," however, suffers from the vice of vagueness. As Gerhard Casper has written, "it is neither clearly prescriptive nor clearly descriptive; its contours are difficult to discern; its historical roots are diverse and uncertain." Any attempt to explore the contours and roots of German constitutionalism in the global sense suggested by Casper's comment would be a major undertaking extending far beyond the limits of this study. As used here the term shall be limited to …
West German Constitutionalism And Church-State Relations, Donald P. Kommers
West German Constitutionalism And Church-State Relations, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
The complex structure of church-state relations in West Germany arises out of numerous provisions of the Basic Law that combine features of both separation and accommodation. The Basic Law's separationist features are expressed in various guarantees of religious liberty and in the ban on the establishment of a state church. Its accommodationist features appear in constitutional provisions on religious education as well as in articles, taken over from the Weimar Constitution, that confer upon the established churches a special juridical status enjoyed by no other nongovernmental entity. The arguably diverse goals of the religion clauses are difficult to reconcile, creating …
Liberty And Community In Constitutional Law: The Abortion Cases In Comparative Perspective, Donald P. Kommers
Liberty And Community In Constitutional Law: The Abortion Cases In Comparative Perspective, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
In the mid-1970s the high courts of several western democracies handed down constitutional decisions concerning the legal regulation of abortion. All of the courts sustained their abortion statutes except the United States and West Germany, which moved in opposite directions. The US Supreme Court voided the conservative abortion statutes of various states while West Germany's highest court nullified an abortion statute that took a liberal stance on abortion. The extended opinions of the American and German courts and their contrasting grounds for decision make them fitting candidates for a comparative analysis of abortion jurisprudence. The abortion issue illustrates the tension …
Comparative Constitutional Law: Casebooks For A Developing Discipline, Donald P. Kommers
Comparative Constitutional Law: Casebooks For A Developing Discipline, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
Comparative constitutional law is a developing area of legal scholarship. One sign of this development is the recent appearance of two casebooks, both published in 1979. Comparative Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials by Mauro Cappelletti and William Cohen, focuses primarily on the procedural rights of defendants from the United States and nine European jurisdictions. Comparative Constitutional Law. Cases and Commentaries by Walter F. Murphy and Joseph Tanenhaus, examines the constitutional interpretation of a large number of substantive issues in six contemporary constitutional democracies. Reviewing the two books together provides an opportunity not only to compare them as teaching tools but …
The Constitutional Supervision Of Administrative Agencies In The Federal Republic Of Germany: Similarities And Contrasts With American Law, Lee A. Albert
Journal Articles
No abstract provided.
Judicial Review: Its Influence Abroad, Donald P. Kommers
Judicial Review: Its Influence Abroad, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
The doctrine of judicial review, having been nourished in a legal culture and socio-political environment favorable to its growth, is America’s most distinctive contribution to constitutional government. Judicial review as historically practiced in the United States was duly recorded abroad, with varying degrees of influence and acceptability. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the influence of judicial review was most conspicuous in Latin America, where it was adopted as an articulate principle of numerous national constitutions, while most European nations consciously rejected it as incompatible with the prevailing theory of separation of powers. Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, although marginally …
The Value Of Comparative Constitutional Law, Donald P. Kommers
The Value Of Comparative Constitutional Law, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
The publication of an English translation of a notable decision by a major foreign tribunal' is a fitting occasion on which to discuss the value of comparative constitutional law as a subject of academic study and as a legal discipline of valid current applicability. When referring to comparative constitutional law, I am speaking mainly of case law and most particularly of judicial decisions handed down by national tribunals empowered to review the constitutionality of legislative and executive acts.
Comparative Judicial Review And Constitutional Politics, Donald P. Kommers
Comparative Judicial Review And Constitutional Politics, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
Donald P. Kommers reviews Richard D. Baker's Judicial Review in Mexico: A Study of the Amparo Suit (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1971); B. L. Strayer's Judicial Review of Legislation in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968); Heinz Laufer's Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit und politischer Prozess (Tiibingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck ], 1968); Mauro Cappelletti's Judicial Review in the Contemporary World (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1971); Edward McWhinney's Judicial Review (4th ed.) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969); Richard E. Johnston's The Effect of Judicial Review on Federal-State Relations in Australia, Canada, and the United States (Baton Rouge: Louisiana …
Politics And Jurisprudence In West Germany: State Financing Of Political Parties, Donald P. Kommers
Politics And Jurisprudence In West Germany: State Financing Of Political Parties, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
The relationship between political parties and representative government has been an important consideration in the constitutional jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Federal Constitutional Court has gone further than any other constitutional tribunal in the West to promote a free and competitive party system, and the Court’s decisions affecting the status of parties under the Basic Law, especially those having to do with party finance, are a marvelous illustration of the interplay between politics and law. The Federal Constitutional Court’s decision in 1966 to invalidate a federal plan for subsidizing political parties is a good example of the …
Judicial Review In Italy And West Germany, Donald P. Kommers
Judicial Review In Italy And West Germany, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
This is a comparative study of the constitutional courts of Italy and West Germany. These institutions, established in the 1950's, have settled hundreds of constitutional disputes. And their caseloads continue to rise in volume. The time seems ripe, therefore, briefly to review the work of these tribunals and to relate this work to the condition of constitutional democracy in the two polities. It should be remarked that this is not fundamentally a study in constitutional jurisprudence. The main purpose of this article is to see how judicial review has actually operated, what its effects have been, and what its future …